"Tales of Mr. Rhee: Those Who Fight Monsters... #2" Comic Review

Can you imagine walking into a mega-corporation like Apple and demanding to see the person in charge?  Now imagine that organization is secretly controlling the world through ties to demonic entities.  That's probably a bad idea, right?  (I mean, sure, it worked out eventually in Angel, but whatever.) Well, that's what Brad Thomson, the demonic DJ, is up to as a favor to his buddy, Mr. Rhee.  He's waltzed in the front door of Dumashine Enterprises looking for answers and he's willing to stack bodies until he gets the information.  

Up until this point, we've seen Brad as a charming, happy-go-lucky monster.  Sure, he killed someone in the previous issue, but that was only because she saw Brad in his demon form.  What else was he supposed to do?  This issue has Brad in full-on monster mode.  He literally picks someone up by the face and just crushes the man's head in his hands.  There's a large “SQUISH” as Brad growls at the reader with clenched teeth, blood splattering every which way.  Things only get bloodier from here.

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Artist Seth Damoose has a somewhat cartoony style, which works well for Brad's normal demeanor.  He can definitely bring the terror, as we've seen in the previous Mr. Rhee mini-series, Karmageddon.  That horror is on display here in full force.  Dumashine employees are literally ripped apart left and right.  No two deaths are alike in this carnage.  By the end of it, there is a sea of blood and gore covering the lobby.  Those kind of stains don't come out easy...or so I'm told.

Anthony D. Lee's colors work well with Damoose's pencils.  All that blood really pops off the page.  The whole issue has a vibrant color palette.  If all these people weren't being horrifically torn to shreds, you'd think it was a very upbeat, happy comic.

The shadows are the one thing that feel a little off.  This sometimes looks like Kirby dots, which appear odd, as they'll only show up on one person or item in a panel.  Other times it looks like an awkward smudge on the page.  There's a panel about halfway through the issue where half of it's shrouded in the dots and it just looks weird.  

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With all the horror that Brad unleashes in the Dumashine offices, you really pay attention when something comes up that scares even him.  Here he is capable of turning a man's head into mist with a flick of his wrist and he shrinks at the appearance of the higher-ups in this company.  Brad has some tricks up his sleeves though.  He came here with a mission to help Mr. Rhee, but is that all he's coming here to do?  

Tales of Mr. Rhee: Those Who Fight Monsters... is pulling all the threads together.  Longtime fans of Dirk Manning's work dating back to Nightmare World will find a lot to enjoy here, as there are some big tie-ins to those stories.  Manning is weaving this all together with expert precision.  If this is the kind of mayhem that's unleashed in the second chapter, where is he going to go next?