Our view of the world expands as more dangers surface.
Creative Staff:
Story: David Andry
Art: Alejandro Aragon
Colors: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Deron Bennett
What They Say:
In the aftermath of a Wave, Paxton continues his journey in search of medical assistance for his sick son. Left to fend for themselves at the family cabin, the kids are visited by a mysterious stranger. Meanwhile, Paxton, joined by a welcome companion on the road, reaches the settlement of Hospitality—only to find the welcome less than hospitable.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of Resonant worked really well for me even as it plays to familiar post-apocalypse ideas. While there are no zombies walking about the general idea is still there as to how people survive in this new world. David Andry connected us to a pretty good family that’s doing its best to survive and showing how they’ve been handling themselves, leading to the father heading out to search for medicine. It also worked well with Aragon’s style of artwork that gave it something raw and dynamic as the Wave played out but also just existing in their day to day life or moving about the world outside the home. Aragon is able to expand in a big way on that here with a lot of new things introduced and it has me all the more eager for more of them.
Paxton’s journey toward Hospitality is one that’s been fraught with struggles. While he made it through the Wave that hit, the other guy is down for the count. Paxton also ends up with a new companion as he comes across along the way and befriends it enough that they travel together, giving him something to talk to. Which is good since what they see is disturbing, such as the “Maw Cult” that goes by while they hide. It’s right out of the darker side of Road Warrior kind of cult material that you’d expect to come about from those that are broken by surviving. What I really like, however, is the time in Hospitality itself. Getting to see a town that has some level of commerce and a population that’s bartering and trading is interesting, though Paxton is simply far too trusting when you get down to it, resulting in him going down a dark path quickly.
Events back at the house are pretty interesting in themselves. While the youngest boy is still stuck in the bed and waiting on medicine, struggling from the impact of the Wave itself, the other two are doing their best to recover from it. The young girl managed to get the door open for her brother that was trapped outside but she still did a lot of damage as the Wave caused her to wonder what she’d look like with her skin torn off. Her brother is recovering as well and they’re all doing what they can to clean up after the incident. Which is interesting to watch as they basically go through their days together in a simple way. What’s going to provide for some change is that the boy that he saw out in the woods before the Wave has now come to return his knife, but you know there’s going to be something coming from all of this.
In Summary:
I really enjoyed the first issue of Resonant and am definitely glad that the second holds up just as well. It’s expanding quickly, more than some might care for, but it’s hitting some good marks with what it needs to do. I’m definitely curious to see more of the world and how it operates after what’s happened and Paxton seems to largely have the right idea of just avoiding people in general. His need for medicine for his son means he can’t follow his own rules and we see how quickly it goes south as he really is too trusting here. It’s a solid post-apocalypse story that leaves you wanting more of it quickly and it looks great with a really strong sense of design and color that gives it a good earthy feeling.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: August 28th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99