Unnatural Order #2 is the kind of genre-bending sci-fi/fantasy action-adventure that I can get into. You may remember, the standard swords and sorcery story of issue #1 left me feeling a little lackluster, despite the wonderful art. But this issue doesn’t share any of the faults I found in the previous one. Or maybe I just enjoy physics-based sci-fi more than swords and sorcery.
The first half of Unnatural Order #2 takes place at the CERN research facility in our modern times. Here, writer Christopher Yost finds the central focus of his story, Navy Seal John Murphy – i.e. the modern day soldier surprisingly revealed on the last page of issue #1. We follow Murphy as he leads his team of Seals into CERN to confront the supernaturally powered villain, Iodoc – the man who becomes the Druid. As a physics teacher, I really enjoyed this setting and plotline that unfolds.
I don’t want to reveal too much, but this issue answers many of the questions opened up by the first issue’s cliffhanger, including what the heck modern day physics and U.S. soldiers have to do with the ancient sword and sorcery setting.
The first half of Unnatural Order #2 is basically a double origin story for both John Murphy and the villain, Iodoc, showing us how they both end up in the past. I critiqued issue #1 for not having enough character development for either its heroes or the villain. Luckily, that is not the case here. Murphy is a well-rounded character – a strait-laced, intelligent leader of his Navy Seals team with a reason to get home again. Iodoc, aka the Druid – who barely appeared in issue #1 – is also prominent, and we learn more about the source of his power and his motivations.
The biggest flaw I find in this change of setting and focus is it basically means the main protagonist of the series – obviously John Murphy – only appeared on the very last page of issue #1. Furthermore, the main character of issue #1 – the mysterious sorceress, Adrina – only appears in the last three pages of this issue. Although everything works together as a whole, this switch of main character along with the mixing of genres and settings between issues gave me a slight feeling of disconnect, but that might be on purpose.
The second half of Unnatural Order #2 picks up right where issue #1 left off, with the discovery of John Murphy by the typical band of sword and sorcery heroes in the past. We learn even more about the power, machinations and motivations of the Druid during great action sequences as Murphy and the band of heroes battle the villain and his forces. Luckily, whereas Unnatural Order #1 covered too much plot, this issue keeps the story tighter and the pacing is much better for it.
Artist Val Rodrigues and colorist Dearbhla Kelly continue with their gorgeous style – still my favorite part of this series. Rodrigues includes even more detail in this issue that enhances the cinematic quality of the action. The art style works just as well in the modern, technology-filled setting as it does in the magic-dominated past.
The muted colors of Kelly again bring the images to life, while building around different color schemes. Many pages consist predominantly of different tones of the same color, creating a very palatable atmosphere.
The lettering of Andworld Design is still solid, not just in the dialogue or narrative captions, but also with sound effects. I don’t normally pay close attention to sound effects in comics, but I did in Unnatural Order #2. Once or twice, a sound effect is the only indication of an important plot-point. Also, sound effects make the brutal fight scenes even more gruesome. The letterer (or maybe it’s the colorist?) also uses a slight change to the narrative caption boxes compared to issue #1 to indicate that our narrator is now John Murphy rather than Adrina.
Overall, I’m much more impressed with Unnatural Order #2 than I was with issue #1. Christopher Yost provides much more character depth to the main villain, the Druid, as well as the main character, John Murphy, which enabled me to get into the comic better. The story also really gets going in this issue. The mixing of sci-fi with swords and sorcery separates this series from others on the shelf. But, even without this aspect, the excellent art of Val Rodrigues and Dearbhla Kelly would be reason enough to check out this series.
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