John’s path takes him to difficult places once again.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Andrea Mutti
Colors: Lauren Affe
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
What They Say:
John Abbott, considerably wiser and more guarded after recent events, is faced with the prospect of relocating to the Caribbean to help outfit the merchant navy with arms. With the completion of the USS Constitution on the horizon, he has little leverage to escape the assignment. Next stop: Nassau—and the Quasi-War with France!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The second Rebels series has certainly been an interesting one to get into as it doesn’t just repeat what the first one was or expand upon it. It’s going in its own direction as a “second generation” story with it following John Abbott and that’s something that Brian Wood has been handling very well. The greater scope of stories that are largely untold in media these days makes it feel fresh and new while giving us something raw and rough through some beautifully done artwork from Andrea Mutti. I’ve seen his work elsewhere and enjoyed it but this material just seems such a perfect fit for his style that I could get used to having years of him involved in this kind of project.
As we’ve seen, events along the Barbary Coast have been problematic to say the least and the careful escalation of plans has lead to the Constitution being built. At the same time, fallout from the Revolutionary War is still being felt with a kind of proxy war where both England and France are causing problems along the shipping lanes and you see how many British naval commanders still view Americans as British nationals that have lost their way, hence easily seizing ships and crews. It’s a dangerous situation that’s building and brewing in interesting ways and the variances in the forces at hand is intriguing. The mindset of how the American side is being view definitely makes for some very neat areas that can be explored and what little we do get here is pretty enticing.
John’s time is what dominates here and it’s an area where it’s sort of listless in a way but achieves a certain goal. While he’s reaching a limit of where he can get to because of the nature of government/military aspects, new avenues are opening – though he’s not aware of at first. With the Constitution finishing up and his not being assigned to it at sea, he’s sent to the Carribbean to help outfit ships there to fight back against pirates and to make it more of a quasi-war of attrition. This is definitely not what he wants, but has to do, and suffering through that year or so in the region is brutal for him. It does further cement things for him with what he really wants to do after coming back and spending some time in Vermont with his family – a state that’s now formally joined the United States. His path is intriguing and I’m looking forward to revisiting it as a part of the bigger picture.
In Summary:
Rebels continues to engage and entice me with what it does. The series is exploring some neat areas of history through John Abbott’s eyes and it’s revealing certain things and ideas that can make for rich and engaging stories – pushing me toward looking for some good historical fiction to expand upon what Brian Wood and Andrea Mutti are doing here. There’s a lot to like in understanding more of this period and what was going on and the creative team is firing on all cylinders once again.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 24th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
