The Last Owling #2 is a comic created by John A. Rhodes and Ray Marek III with linework by Joseph Hao Olesco and colors by Avery Ferdinand. Between kidnappings, cults, and owls, there is a lot going on here. This is an issue that attempts to find a balance between action and story and struggles a bit. Our star superheroine is known as the Owling, a woman who has joined the family business of vigilante work. Her “Alfred” is her mother, and she also provides her with various gadgets. This plot has the Owling going up against the Cult of the Great Horned Owl, an enemy that has plagued her family for years. We will see her get violent with these fiends but it doesn’t get hard to watch. This whole issue is paced like a sitcom mystery with a lot of the dialogue either bordering on cringe or sounding like something out of a comedy act, but it kind of works because this comic doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. We do get info dumped near the beginning which is the first of a few wordy pages; most of the other pages are a bit light so it’s a reasonable trade off.      To sum this up, what we have here is a decent second issue that moves the story along and provides some humor and excitement.

            This is a well-colored comic with a slight cartoony look. This story moves between a few key locations and they each provide the right ambiance to the scenes. The expression level here is decent to slightly above. The faces are we drawn with a good amount of detail so the looks do come off well, but some of the key characters wear masks so we don’t get as much emotion as we could. Face sameness among the women characters is a bit of an issue here; yeah the lipstick, hairstyle, or even skin tone might be different but the face structure is very similar. The Owling has a Batman-esque assortment of high-tech gadgets that help her out in the field. The action here is pretty light and it’s mostly physical with easy flowing scenes. The Owling wears an outfit reminiscent of Batgirl but with the torso out. There is some sexualization here by the villains towards women in general and there is some nudity here that some might consider excessive.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like tales starring superheroines going up against a villainous group with an aura of humor and almost playing out like an episode of TV this is for you.

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

R. Mostly because of nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’ve been waiting for this little bird.”

 

Physical Link: https://hyperverse-109492.square.site/product/the-last-owling-2/191?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

Purchase Link: https://www.indyplanet.com/the-last-owling-2

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hyperversecomics/the-last-owling-issue-2-the-bride-of-molach/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 7, for 29% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 5, for 21% 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 – 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 – 3

“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.”