The complications grow quite a bit.
Creative Staff:
Story: James Robinson
Art: Tom Feister
Colors: David Curiel
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Doc’s a cop. Mabel’s a crook. They’re two wayward souls, fated to fall in love at first sight… even as Mabel swears to kill Doc if it’s the last thing she does. It’s Harlequin Romance meets Hard-Boiled Crime, as only James Robinson could deliver!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of Grand Passion tickled a particular fancy of mine with what it did in giving us small town cops, an interesting pair of criminals with some really solid work ethic behind what they do, and a bigger mystery about to spill out from it. And a little bit of a crazy awkward romance in the midst as well. Robinson has delivered many great stories over the years and most definitely earns the trust in seeing this through and pairing with Tom Feister for the artwork was a really big bonus as he’s bringing these locations and characters to life wonderfully. With the second issue everything is starting to come together more but you can still imagine a number of twists ahead.
The split story dynamic is a plus to this book, something that worked well in the first issue, and ends with our two leads coming together that will make for interest in seeing how Robinson handles it going forward. For Doc, well, things are still going badly as the sheriff wants nothing to do with his theories since he runs his shop his way and that has Doc looking to figure things out on his own but unable to really do anything about it. And he is putting things together in his story here, which shows some good initiative and approach to law enforcement work. Unfortunately, as we see, the sheriff has seeded things right so that Doc won’t be a problem should his attentions turn the wrong way and as good as Doc is, well, the deck is seriously stacked against him and he has nothing but a big deadly wall ahead of him at this point.
And that’s not including Mabel as she wants to kill him for what he did to Steve while also being hugely attracted to him the minute she came across him. She’s pretty driven at the moment with how things went down but sticking to the plan sans Steve because it wasn’t truly dependent on a person but just the actions themselves. Of course, she’s got Steve and Doc on her mind and we also get her realizing just how screwed up this job was with what’s in the bag and how it has now painted an even bigger target on her. I also loved the scene with her and Benny from the safe house as he breaks the deal and goes for more, seeing more danger and potential for profit and shenanigans, as it makes it clear just what kind of tough and no nonsense person Mabel is. Her arc is definitely really fun to watch with the internal dialogue and how she’s twisted between being drawn toward Doc and the need to kill him.
In Summary:
Grand Passion carries through on the promise of the first issue and has me craving the next one already. If it can handle this throughout its run it’ll definitely be a series that ranks higher as a whole as I’m trying to not go overboard in how solid it is. There’s a lot to like here in getting to see more of what both Doc and Mabel are up against and the potential for what will follow. Robinson’s crafting a fun story here that Feister delivers in bold strokes, some great sensuality, and some really intense moments. Definitely worth it for fans of this particular genre that we don’t get done well enough in comics.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: December 21st, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
