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Hell Yeah #2 Comic Review
By Dan Horn

April 4, 2012 - 14:11

Publisher(s): Image Comics
Writer(s): Joe Keatinge
Penciller(s): Andre Szymanowicz
Inker(s): Andre Szymanowicz
Colourist(s): Jason Lewis
Letterer(s): Douglas E. Sherwood
Cover Artist(s): Andre Szymanowicz
$2.99 US


hellyeah2.jpg
I'm not even really sure where to begin here, which is rare--if not totally unprecedented. How do you anatomise a book which has moving parts that seem so unrelated to one another?

In Hell Yeah #2, the exegetic slog of the premiere issue seems long behind, and can nearly be forgotten completely. It's not that I doubt that Keatinge has a plan to bring everything full circle by the end of this arc, but Keatinge's narrative is so uneven--and at times downright uninteresting--that it's difficult to give a damn.

This issue sees some semi-comical banter between Ben and his extra-dimensional visitors, and readers get a better understanding of the multiverse-spanning conspiracy to eradicate all alternate Ben Days. But, in truth, it's just more exposition and awkward plot developments. I got the comic book industry commentary of the first issue, and I got the in-jokes ("Ben Day," for example), but this chapter seems detached from any notable meta-commentary. It's almost as if we've read bits of this book out of order. Something doesn't quite compute in regards to the progression of Hell Yeah.

Szymanowicz's art seems a bit tighter here, but not by much. Lewis' palette is still vibrant and might be the most interesting thing you'll find in this book. Unfortunately, Hell Yeah just isn't as frenetic, fun, or incendiary as it should be, and that's the real problem with this book: it's just bland.




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