The Grindhouse B-movie nature of Gehenna: Naked Aggression #1 was palpable, and the race to stop a well-intentioned kidnapper continues this week in issue #2. That may sound like an oxymoron, but Gehenna is running out of options and a blonde crime boss enforcer is hot on her tail. Prepare for badass shootouts and quick-thinking detective work.
Gehenna: Naked Aggression #2 opens with bubbly and fun Isa checking security cameras in the neighborhood. She’s using them to track Gehenna, who has taken out dozens of guards who were meant to protect a crime boss’s son, now in Gehenna’s clutches. The well-endowed Isa gets the info she needs and somehow catches up to Gehenna in a veterinarian’s office. Writer Patrick Kindlon and artist Maurizio Rosenzweig keep the pace moving with these two bombshells trying to kill each other just ten pages in.
Prior to their confrontation, Kindlon does some more flashback work that helps carve out what Gehenna did and why her husband was killed. It helps flesh things out a bit, while reminding us she’s on a kind of revenge tour.
Returning in this issue are fun, quick-thinking fight moves and easy-to-follow action scene moments. Gehenna flipping a table, for instance, or fast thinking when confronted by two well-intentioned cops. There’s a little less wow factor in this regard compared to the first issue, but it’s still there.
I wouldn’t want to be a vet simply because so many criminals would demand I clean them up!
Credit: Image
What is there is great art and plenty of action movie fun. The fact that Rosenzweig gets to design a cool vigilante hero is the icing on the cake, and a nice cliffhanger to up the ante for the next issue. By the end of the issue, you’ll want to learn more about this bigger world, which is clearly a lot more colorful than our own.
On the character front, Gehenna gets more interesting, but Isa ends up coming off as one-note. She’s enjoying the fight, but aside from the rush, she’s mostly just a curvy blonde and not much else. She comes off as villainous and a bit inhuman, especially when she’s grinning ear to ear in a shootout.
One other gripe is the plot progression, which is minimal at best. As an intense action piece, it works, but it’s starting to read like a good trade-waiting sort of read. We’ll see if things pick up next issue.
Gehenna: Naked Aggression #2 delivers stylish, B-movie chaos with sharp action and escalating tension. Still, it’s starting to feel like a series best experienced in trade form, where the high-octane mayhem can build without losing momentum.
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