Trill League: Episode 2 is a comic created by Anthony Piper with color assistance from Artimus Clay. As night falls with criminals still on the loose the Trill League is forced to pick up the pace. This is a superfolk comic with a lot of drama, some violence, and references/parodies. The main man for this tale is Blackmayne, a millionaire superhero who is trying to keep the community safe. He has a sidekick named Sparrow, a young boy with a lot of energy and mouth that doesn’t shut. The leading lady is Wondeisha, she is a superheroine with similarities to Wonder Woman and a troubled relationship with Swolemayne, a superhero with Superman-like abilities who finds it very difficult to be faithful. There are a number of other heroes like Swift, Quiver, Brittany, and TamTam. The story begins with Wondeisha, Sparrow, and TamTam at the mall shopping for shoes. This run-of-the-mill trip turns hostile as TamTam is accused of stealing by the security officer Crowbar. The violence in this is story is hard-hitting, explosive, and bloody, but there isn’t any gore. The pacing of this story fluctuates between fast and slow as there is a lot of talking. The tone is a mix between an ensemble superhero film and a movie you’d see on BET. Most of the intensity here is brought about by drama, high-stakes danger, and violence. The dialogue is very conversational with a lot of back-and-forth and deep concepts/thoughts discussed. There are a significant number of word-heavy pages and thick text bubbles/blocks. Sometimes the language used can slow things down as well. This is a sequel issue that raises the stakes and shows us what past events led us to this point while also providing us with a deeper look at the different characters.

            The art here is drawn in a sharp, smooth, modern style. The color range here is wide overall but due to most of this comic taking place at night there are a large amount of dark tones. Besides from some shrubbery outside of a church most of the scenery is of the concrete variety. The location changes frequently as the story follows the different characters so we’ll visit locations like the aforementioned church, sewers, a mall, and even a nightclub. The backgrounds tend to show the surroundings albeit usually blurry. The expression level here is high as most characters show how they feel outside of Blackmayne and Bigg Banks. The range of emotions is all over the place from anger, digust, and irritation to happiness, annoyance, and confusion. The faces have an above-average amount of detail and show the different expressions with great clarity. The mystical effects are usually bright and always eye-catching. The violence is mainly physical though some guns, superpowers, and explosions play a role. There are some hard-hitting moments with blood but no gore. The action scenes come in bursts, are spread out, and have good flow. Tight gear seems to be norm for everybody with arms and/or legs out for certain people. Model-like looks and bodies across the board.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero stories starring an all-black cast with heavy drama, comedy, violence, and a large number of references and parodies then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, sexual situations.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Was it not me who kept your identity a secret?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trillleague/trill-league-issue-2/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 73

Violent Pages: 16, for 22% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 3% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 3

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 1

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1 for most of it but 4 in one scene

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”