When we last left Mark Millar and Rafael Albuquerque’s Huck, he was enlisted by his mother and Mr. Harper to track down other supers. He also just got dumped by his first girlfriend, which puts a wrench in the whole “do one good deed a day” mindset Huck’s famous for. But as the trio travels into the big city, they discover new things about the other supers in their world, like their varied abilities and how some don’t have the same moral compass that Huck does.
Huck: Big Bad World #2 introduces us to our first new super in the series, Lorenzo. Using his abilities of invisibility to assassinate rivals of his crime boss uncle, Lorenzo is the nearly the complete opposite from Huck in every way: he’s smooth, stylish, and willing to kill for money. But as Huck makes contact with Lorenzo and starts to throw down, he and his mother learn the real reasons behind Lorenzo’s actions, and that he may not be as heartless as he seems.
Dark Horse
Mark Millar eschews the feel-good vibes of the previous issue here and instead delves into the old superhero standby of “meet up, fight, and team up”. Lorenzo is a great antagonist, and essentially reads like a bizarro version of Huck. He’s not in it to help others, just to complete jobs for his Uncle. But the focus on Lorenzo means a lot of the story for Huck takes a backseat. We get a quick nod to Huck’s mindset post-breakup, but aside from that it reads like nothing bad ever really happened to him. Huck’s just ready to go track down this super for Mr. Harper, heartbreak be damned. (Speaking of Harper, it does feel like we’re just spinning wheels until it’s revealed he has villainous reasons for finding these other supers.)
While it’s great to see a new aspect of the world of this miniseries, there’s simply too much time spent on Lorenzo here, which leads to forgetting who is the main character of the series at times. When Huck eventually confronts him, it feels like he’s jumping into a different story, literally and figuratively. Not to mention that it feels like a bit of a stretch for a character like Lorenzo to have any real knowledge of the person Mr. Harper is trying to find, which is kinda the whole reason for Huck’s little quest here.
While the fight with Lorenzo takes away from the narrative, it makes for a pretty awesome sequence for Rafael Albuquerque to draw. If the first issue was primarily an excuse for Albuquerque to set the tone and mood for the series, the second one allows him to cut loose and showcase a pretty solid fight scene between two supers. Lorenzo’s abilities may not be as strong has Huck’s, but he has more experience using them, so watching the two face off makes for a fun time that’s way more of an even match than you would initially think it would be.
If there’s one area where the art falters, there’s a few moments where the backgrounds are blank, but otherwise it’s another strong showcase for Albuquerque to remind us of what he can do when he lets loose, much like Huck.
While Huck: Big Bad World‘s second issue does a great job of expanding the world of the title character, that expansion comes at the cost of Huck’s story itself. That’s not a great sign this far into the series, but with this being only the second issue, there’s still time for Millar and Albuquerque to get us more of Huck’s mindset. As it stands right now, Huck’s new adventure is still pretty engaging and full of fun new moments, but hopefully the creatives remember what made us love the first Huck series in the first place.
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