"The Twilight Zone #2" Comic Review

Written by James Ferguson

 

Published by Dynamite Entertainment

 

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Written by J. Michael Straczynski (aka JMS)
Illustrated by Guiu Vilanova
2013, 26 Pages
Comic released on February 5th, 2014

Review:

Trevor Richmond got into some serious trouble.  He made some bad investments at his firm and it's finally come to light.  Now he's going to face jail time, not to mention the end of his career and love life.  Unless he makes a change.  Trevor makes a deal with Expedited Services to become someone else.  Now he's Jason Black.  But if he's now Jason Black, who's that walking around as Trevor Richmond?  This is the kind of brilliant set up that is synonymous with the Twilight Zone.  

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J. Michael Straczynski's second issue of the comic book version of the cult TV show gets the story into full swing.  It's a perfect example of the “Be Careful What You Wish For” theme.  Trevor wanted to avoid having to face the consequences for his actions and took what he thought was a way out.  Now there's someone else living his life and doing a better job of it than he ever did.  He's envious of the guy who is taking the wrap for all of his past indiscretions.  

JMS captures the subtle horror that runs through most episodes of the Twilight Zone.  It's not something like a werewolf or a vampire jumping out at you.  It's the sudden realization that the world you knew has changed into something entirely different.  The rules that you lived by have been altered.  In this case, Trevor Richmond just figured that he'd get a new identity and his old one would just go away.  Expedited Services decided that they couldn't waste a perfectly good life so they put it to good use.  It does bring up a good question though:  What did the other guy do to want to change his life to something like Trevor's where he was facing down all those problems?

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While the story is pretty solid in this issue, Guiu Vilanova's artwork could use a little more work.  It lacks a certain polish, like it needs one more pass to be complete.  The basics are there, it's just that there are some oddities like facial features that are a little too big or expressions that look out of place or unnatural.

JMS' Twilight Zone is off to an interesting start.  I had originally thought this would be a one-shot story but it's part of a larger arc.  Now that Trevor Richmond has found that his life has been taken over (and that someone else is living it better), he's having second thoughts about his change.  But is it too late?  I guess I have to tune in next month to find out.

Grades:

Story: fourandahalfstars Cover
Art: 2.5 Stars
Overall: fourstars

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James Ferguson
Lord of the Funny Books
James has a 2nd grade reading level and, as a result, only reads books with pictures. Horror is his 5th favorite genre right after romantic comedy and just before silent films. No one knows why he's here, but he won't leave.
Other articles by this writer

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