Under the sea…
Creative Staff:
Story: Donny Cates, Eliot Rahal
Art: Geoff Shaw
Colors: Lauren Affe
What They Say:
When the world’s greatest superhero team, the Command, defaults on their loans, their secret underwater base becomes the property of the Paybacks! It’s Night Knight’s first mission with the superhero repo squad, and the foreclosure goes smoothly . . . until it really, really doesn’t. I mean, High Guard can see through walls, you know? How do you sneak past that?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Paybacks had a surprisingly fun first installment overall, something I can’t quite say I was expecting from the property. While the book is intent on telling a story, it’s the kind of work where the humor can overtake it and becomes more of the focus. The team here mostly found the right balance with that issue and it carries through here, even as it starts to get a bit more serious. It’s a delicate line to walk overall since veering too much on either side really does change the balance of it all. This issue works pretty well, though I’m still not terribly engaged with any of the characters, simply because it has a good groove going and isn’t trying to shake that boat just yet.
The main premise here is that the team gets assigned its next mission from Mr. Pierce, their boss. We get to see a shadowed version of him and you pretty much have to believe that he’s a bad guy that’s just figuring out a way to scam everyone and make money off of it while potentially taking down heroes as well. This time around he’s got the team that now includes Night Knight going after the world’s best known group, Command. Their secret lair has been found in the form of a base in the Mariana Trench. Suffice to say, it’s not an easy place to get to from their normal Driver. That means they get their Doctor (strange) parody version to come in and transport them before tooting out of there. There’s definitely an interesting manner about those that take the team where they need to go and I certainly like the way they’re handling it all.
The bulk of the issue focuses on the carnage across the base as the team has to deal with High Guard, who is apparently the most powerful hero in the universe. He comes across as a Batman/Superman combination in varying degrees and puts the team to task in a big way. It’s a pretty chaotic and highly fun sequence overall that unfolds and the quips, the silliness and the overall choreography of the book works well. It’s easy to get into the mindset of the Paybacks themselves because of what we get in the first part of the book when they get their briefing. It’s there that we get into who they are a bit more in terms of personality and that provides a smoothness into the fight. Everyone gets their moment, though we see a bit more of it through new member Night Knight’s eyes as he copes with it and makes some “startling” discoveries along the way.
In Summary:
The Paybacks continues to be fun in its second installment and that’s all I was hoping for. There’s an ease about the writing that’s appealing even as it pushes the humorous side just a bit too much from time to time. The result is that we get a lot of workplace humor that’s appropriate yet you can imagine someone telling the others to shut up a bit more. The book has some really fun action sequences, character expressions and even really solid pauses for effect. The combination of the writing and artwork is spot on and it really feels like this team completely gets it when it comes to what it’s trying to do, resulting in a very good time overall.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 21st, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
