The first issue of There’s Something Wrong With Patrick Todd hit me like a ton of bricks – it felt edgy and exciting, not unlike a Quentin Tarantino movie. The question remains, though: can it survive the sophomore slump many series fall prey to as it sets up its larger story? The answer is…almost!
The second issue picks up where we left off as Patrick has been robbed of all the money earned by mind-controlling people. They entered banks and robbed them for him, but he always picked people who deserved to go to jail anyway. Now he’s poor, can’t help his mother, and a psychotic dude with a blade is after him. Not looking good for Patrick Todd, people!
This issue puts Patrick on the ropes while further fleshing out Brad’s detective work to discover what is going on. You’ve got a classic story where these two plots will likely converge, creating a sense of anticipation and drama. While Patrick is forced to use his powers on innocent folks, Brad is enduring some rather horrific murders involving the mysterious villain of the story.
Note the word balloons.
Credit: AfterShock Comics
That villain remains a mystery in this issue, which is part of the why this issue doesn’t quite live up to the first issue’s excellence – not much headway is made as far as this mysterious man, nor is the larger world fleshed out further. Patrick’s dilemma makes little to no progress — he moves around in the narrative unsure of what to do — save for a direction that should put him in the direct path of the villain. At the same time, Brad gets more time on the page, but he’s also gifted a major plot-progressing moment just because. That makes for an uneven and unearned experience, all told.
Art by Gavin Guidry continues to look as clean and pleasing to the eye as ever. Paired with Chris O’Halloran’s colors, the world looks lived-in and realistic. There’s a texture used to help distinguish between characters and backgrounds, or vice versa. The pencil work is never fussy, never too detailed, and always just right. Maybe it’s a stretch, but given the subtle superpower use in the story, it seems to work with the line-work.
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou letters the book exceptionally, with some interesting layering going on with word balloons. A yelled “No” may appear behind something in a scene, for instance, and Patrick’s powers conveyed through a drop shadow on the word balloons continues to be a nice touch.
There’s a lot of pent of anticipation in There’s Something Wrong With Patrick Todd #2 as we await the villain to be fully revealed and explained. That slower pace ends up cooling off the otherwise compelling and addictive nature of the story.
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