Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Andrea Mutti
Colors: Lauren Affe
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
What They Say:
Off the coast of New York, John Abbott finally gets his chance to accompany the USS Constitution into battle as the War of 1812 kicks off. Will he trust the captain to do right by the ship he’s dedicated his adult life to building?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The penultimate installment of the series is one that makes it clear just how much material that Brian Wood and Andrew Mutti have taken us through so far. Following John Abbott’s life is one that has been kind of scattershot in some ways but as we know him he has one really true and clear defined path as something of a ship savant. His pursuit of the USS Constitution is a hugely worthy one and seeing how it came together really brought to light the kind of quiet passion that he usually followed and worked with to get things done. Wood’s scripts have been great to dig into, even if some of the letter that Fletcher brings in is wholly appropriate and hard on my eyes, and I’m once again madly in love with what Andrea Mutti brings to the page with layouts and designs.
John’s tale across this issue is one that really makes you feel for him even more. With much of his time aboard the ship these days being little more than going around New York and New Jersey and shooting at nothing more than seagulls, it’s the farthest thing from his mind that he designed the ship for. And that kind of low key anger surfaces in a lot of ways combined with his lack of social skills with the other officers. But when the captain reveals the orders to start hunting British flagged ships he ends up coming to life in a great way, fully engaged and able to take the crew – which has some solid skill but a lot of laziness – to a whole new level as they’re now fully engaged in this as well. It’s what he’s dreamed of and it’s what they’ve trained for now coming together on the high seas.
The battle with the British ship that comes into play off of Nova Scotia is definitely exciting and full of the confusing moments that comes from it, especially as both ships catch aflame, lots of sailors and soldiers die, and it’s simply chaotic. Mutti really nails this wonderfully (and makes me wish for me 1980’s “Ancient Art of War at Sea” game to be available to me) as the ships look fantastic and the motion and seriousness of the soldiers hits a certain sweet spot. The story takes a bad turn for Abbott, however, when Captain Hull gets killed and nobody seemingly wants to take command, leaving Abbott to take it by force. That helps to win the day, though it’s more the ship and the crew as a whole that Abbott has trained. But that’s not what gets him to keep the job and instead ready to be bounced from the service at the least upon return to land.
In Summary:
The second Rebels series is delivering a strong story of John Abbott with some nice ties to his past in regards to his father and how he viewed the differences in what men are fighting for. The historical aspects are definitely interesting to engage with and seeing how the son views what the father did and the situation they were in compared to the nature of it under a full on government setting definitely works well. Wood’s script keeps this very human, which isn’t easy with someone like Abbott, and Mutti delivers another round of beautiful pages that just keep me poring over the details of the characters and ships to soak it all up. Very good stuff.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 28th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99