Boone’s gonna Boone.
Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Kindt
Art: David Rubin
What They Say:
Hot on the trail of Violet Belle, the Faerie King’s kidnapped daughter, interdimensional detective Boone Dias faces mummified assassins and cannibal pirate faeries in his quest to get her back.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening salvo of this new series definitely hit all the right marks for me with Matt Kindt delivering up a look at the seven gods that are part of the overall story. I loved the variety and weirdness where each would be able to carry an ongoing series easily just with their origin story told in expanded form. That it was so beautifully and creativelly put together with David Rubin’s artwork just made it all the more enticing. What we got there wasn’t throwaway material as it’s dealt with some in this issue but it was the kind of large expansion that you could see Kindt putting together to possibly reconnect with someday down the line, if ever, and to just have it in your pocket in case.
Boone and Glum’s search for Violet Belle landed them in front of the assassin the last time around and that encounter makes up about a third of this issue. It’s not exactly my cup of tea but I do like the way we see Boone analyzing his opponent with some respect and pulling together ideas on it. The most basic thing, however, is that he knows they’ll not get anything out of it and that following it is the better plan. Which sets in motion the extended chase with how Boone operates as he’s got some tracking salt on it that will let him digitally watch it. It’s pure Boone in how he operates in this world and is a lot of fun since it’s not what others expect since they wanted to get into an interrogation. Seeing it get away without a quick explanation does not go over well.
With help from Glum, they manage to secure some time with a some unsavory pirate types to follow the assassin, though it comes with Boone owing them a favor. One they may not want to exercise later considering how his actions cause nothing but trouble on the journey, including nearly burning the entire ship down. Everything is off to a bad start with Boone trying to apologize again over Glum’s eye but not stopping when Glum says to do so and it just ignores Glum’s wishes completely. His natural curiosity causes plenty of trouble along the way, even when he saves them in the moment during one situation, but the whole bloody river thing just left me laughing the most.
But I also really enjoyed the pages we get toward the end fealing with the seven gods in their thrones. Boone knows he needs their help in order to deal with everything but they’re pretty dismissive of him since he’s just one person and can’t offer them much. But this is where interpretations get hilariously dangerous as he offers to give them their mortality using his digital tricks back on Earth. It makes complete sense but it goes in such an obviously bad direction that it makes clear again people need to be very clear when it comes to talking about their greatest desire. Removing immortality seems easy but the consequences… oh, the consequences.
In Summary:
The second issue of this Ether series deliveres exactly what I wanted out of it by expanding on its weirdness with new things and fleshing out some past weirdness. I really like watching the stilted dynamic that we get between Boone and Glum since they’ve got a history but Glum is just plain done with certain aspects of it and is going through what’s required here. Boone’s obliviousness is both good and bad for him but in the end, it is how he survives until he has to really understand something. I like the motions that we get here and am curious to see how the creative team builds on dealing with these gods.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 30th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
