Parent/Guardian #2 is a comic written, illustrated, and lettered by Kyle Roberts with colors by Michael Woods. Charlie goes on the run after waking up in a strange place. This is a science fiction drama comic that has an air of desperation, space opera-style political intrigue, and explosive action. The leading lady here is Charlie, she is a very skilled engineer with her specialty being guardian mechs. She is very impulsive and she has a smart mouth that regularly gets her in trouble. Her father’s consciousness was uploaded into a guardian and he usually acts as a large, silent, bodyguard. There is also Cam, he’s a soldier with a mutual crush on Charlie. This story begins with Charlie waking up in a medical bay with multiple things hooked up to her. She immediately rips off what’s on her, punches a doctor, and then she goes on the run from guards through this large space station. This takes place in a technologically advanced world that might be futuristic. The action here can be explosive and there isn’t any blood or gore. This moves at a slower-than-average pace with the tone of an Empire Strikes Back or Rogue One, as it focuses on rebel forces. This has a palpable amount of dramatic intensity with supporting violence. The dialogue here has heavy back-and-forth, aggressive arguments, and witty retorts. There are at least a few word-heavy pages. This is a riveting sequel issue that shows us a different perspective and changes the stakes while showing us just how dogged and resourceful Charlie can be.

            The art here is drawn in a smoothly detailed late 90’s/early 2000’s comics style with realistic lighting and shading. Just about everything here is in shades of either blue or orange with the occasional grayish-green. For scenery we have outer space with all the distant stars, asteroids, and nothingness that entails. The main location is this large space station that has a med bay, a sizeable garden, a large hangar, and different lodgings. Despite all being on a singular station all these different areas have unique looks and feels. Backgrounds are split between showing the actual physical surroundings and just being a color gradient. The expression level here is high overall as reactions are strong and realistic. Emotions here go from happy and jovial to angry and irritated frequently with regular looks of shock, fear, and sneakiness. Faces have a good level of detail with a cartoonish element in the eyes which leads to some animated and overall very clear expressions. Various firearms are the main weapons used but we will see some blades. There are many explosions(some with nasty implications, hard-hits, and big shots but there isn’t any visible blood or gore. The action scenes are usually 2-3 pages each with a smooth flow, smaller panels, and they appear consistently.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like science fiction drama comics starring a belligerent woman engineer and featuring space opera political intrigue, explosive action, and stacked odds then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, explosions, lewdness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“…you always ensure no one survives.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kroberts/parent-guardian-1-2/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 33

Violent Pages: 14, for 42% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 6% 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 – 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 – 2

“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.”