A new ally, of sorts, in this new strange and sprawling fight.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ray Fawkes
Art: Inaki Miranda
Colors: Eva de la Cruz
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
As Rory learns how to use the Suit of Souls, he hits the streets of Gotham City, finding and interrogating demonic fiends that continue to crawl into the city. With every demon he defeats, Ragman begins to build a name for himself, and unseen enemies and allies are taking notice. But when Ragman finds himself fighting a former ally, he must turn to the help of a different kind of demon…Etrigan!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Ragman had the usual kind of second issue slump that I expected in that Fawkes had to cover some of the backstory elements and a bit of recap. We get that recap early on in this issue as well with Rory filling in his father on what happened and even as much as I just love the way Inaki Miranda illustrates it, I still find it frustrating because this is a six-issue series and not something that most readers would just drop in on. Which is why I like the publishers that do the recap text page with credits, something that the big publishers still don’t do. That said, it’s the kind of refocusing to move things forward with and while we know it all it’s at least doing something useful in having Rory bring his father up to speed.
The rest of the book just keeps things moving in a really good way with lots of little moments. The enemy is definitely showing up more and more and Rory’s taking the fight to them well enough, though he’s still struggling to some degree and his opponents seem to have some inside information that’s keeping him from being ready for them. What I do like is that Batwoman shows up, since we are in Gotham after all, and gets a feel for him and what he’s doing since he’s obviously being watched. It’s a good sequence as you see her gathering enough intel to learn more on her own which is made easier by Rory talking more than he should. But considering the things that roam the streets of Gotham over the years you know that the Bat-team can get a good handle on the kind of alignment that others are on and whether to just keep tabs or not.
While we’ve mostly had no-name creatures for Rory to deal with, this issue gives him something with a bit more meat as the new dark opponent is someone his team knows. Jim was a second unit Marine that was there when things went bad and it turns out for the last six months he’s been healing after striking a bargain with one of the dark beings. He’s taking that fight to Rory now while setting in motion a new incantation to bring something from the other world to here. This gives us someone with a more human side and real vengeance in his heart that adds more weight to the fight, especially since Rory gets taken down hard with a nasty eye trick. But I also loved that we get the fight allowing for a different creature to arrive through with Etrigan, who we knew was coming from the previous issue. Etrigan continues to be a tough character, and I say that as a fan of him, but he provides some experience for Rory to lean into as the scale of the fight is becoming more apparent to him.
In Summary:
Ragman does some fun stuff here overall and I’m particularly pleased with the Batwoman appearance and the potential for what Etrigan represents. Rory’s still pretty much operating as a newbie here with minimal understanding of his abilities and even those within still learning some of the basics, though they’re a bit closer to it for obvious reasons. The main fight that gets underway gives us an opponent that has a little more connection for Rory to work with and I like that everyone tries to just talk their way out of it first. But I also just cannot get over how gorgeous this book is. Miranda’s artwork is spectacular in just about ever panel with some great lines and a sense of motion combined with the detail that really draws me into it in a big way. And that’s before Eva de la Cruz elevates the thing as a whole with some rich coloring that through the digital side is just gorgeous. It’s a great book simply to look at even if the story was mediocre, which it isn’t.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 13th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
