The Stranger #2 is a comic written by Thomas Philipson & James Patricks with art by Devlin Baker and colors by Davi Pinheiro. Detective Denaro begins his investigation into the murder of Doctor Bionic and the identity of The Stranger. This is a dramatic noir murder mystery comic with superhero elements and a large list of suspects that takes place in the mid-1970s. The main man here is Detective Sal Denaro, he is slightly gruff and irritable man and he is handling this case with his friend and fellow police officer Rosie. The suspects are: an ex-football player, a secretary, a model and movie star, a news reporter, a retired grandmother, her inventor grandson, and the CEO of Charlton Industries. All of these people live on the 75th floor of the Fawcett Building where The Stranger was last seen. This story begins with Denaro and Rosie examining the body and hearing from the coroner exactly how Doctor Bionic died. After going over his early life and criminal beginnings they begin the next part of their investigation: the interrogations. This takes place in 1975 in New York during the Christmas season. This is slightly slower paced due to constant conversations and this has a Watchmen-like and murder mystery tone. There isn’t a lot of intensity here but a couple moments might make you raise your eyebrows. The dialogue is conversational with a lot of back-and-forth and a talking-style that fits the era. There are some thick text bubbles and a number of word-heavy pages. This is an intriguing issue that focuses on the various suspects and their motivations to commit murder and their actual ability to do it.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed style reminiscent of comics from the 70’s and 80’s. The color palette is realistic with thematic coloring and stylized shading. Most of this takes place indoors with almost no natural scenery on display. The location is constantly changing as Denaro and Rosie go from apartment to apartment asking questions and this gives us a glimpse at the different personalities that live on this floor. The police station and coroner’s office are also visited. Backgrounds usually show the surroundings and add life to each moment with gradient colors being rare. The expression level here is a bit below average as most of these characters maintain a sort of poker face with little emotion coming through. There are some angry, happy and smug looks. The faces have an above-average amount of detail and show the different expressions very clearly. There isn’t any violence and only a few panels of action.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like dramatic noir murder mystery stories centered around superheroes that star a detective with a long list of suspects that takes place in the 1970s then this is for you.

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

PG.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’d never try anything like that again…”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cococomics/the-stranger-2-a-noir-superhero-murder-mystery-comic/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 17

Violent Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

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

 

Violence Level – 1

“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 – 1

“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

“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.”