“Ignition”
Creative Staff:
Story: Scott Snyder
Art: Hayden Sherman
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letterer: Andworld Design
What They Say:
The trap is set and the blaze is burning, but what our rogue firefighters find inside the hillside mansion is more than they ever bargained for—and more than they can bear. The plan for the perfect heist suffers a terrifying twist as the flames approach and we turn up the heat in Dark Spaces: Wildfire #2!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having sampled a number of Scott Snyder works over the years, I typically end up enjoying them even though most tend to be pretty intense. The opening issue to this delivered what I expected out of the script with an interesting concept and some strong characters to connect with but it over-delivered elsewhere. While he’s worked with a lot of talented artists over the years, the one I’ve been the most excited about was his working with Hayden Sherman. Sherman has wowed me with several projects in the last few years since first coming across their work and seeing that style and evolution of it all is thrilling. This series is incredibly detailed and done in a way that really highlights the attention paid to it, and it’s elevated so much higher thanks to Ronda Pattison’s color design. When working with fire, well, the color design is key. But it extends to so much more here with the mood and atmosphere of the script.
While I got behind on this series, it was easy to reconnect with it as Snyder set a strong opening installment. With this issue, we see more of both the plan itself and the execution while layering it through the mindset of Ma with the firefighting analogous elements. It could get a bit much after a while but for a five-issue series, it should deliver well. The planning phase works through Ma doing her due diligence to see how much truth there is to the crypto side and then upon realizing that it could work, she focuses more on the how to do it, from the timing and way to get to the house to pull off the digital heist to what they need for tools. And organizing it around the actual fires going on themselves, which they have to work with in conjunction with other fire teams. But as Ma says along the way, the real challenge are the unknowns that come up along the way. And that’s what adds to the real tension.
Ma’s uncertainty about actually going through with it is the first real unknown even if you do know that she will. There’s still that moment of whether she’ll shift gears on it but once they make that movement they’re all in. And those early challenges are interesting, such as seeing the larger creatures fleeing the forest at their own pace and just the discovery of how complicated it is to actually get into the house. I was amused at the way once things start downloading that everyone essentially just goes and has fun and drinks a bit too much because that’s purposefully introducing more unknowns, especially at the backend of things when they leave. But, of course, there’s another twist as they find a dead body in the house and that makes it clear that something else is going on here. And with them traipsing all over the place, especially after changing, it’s only going to put the screws to them more unless the whole place burns down.
In Summary:
I really liked the opening issue of this series and this installment takes all of that and moves it forward well. It’s just as richly written and illustrated as the first and it ramps up the tension as we see more of how things both can unravel and how they actually do unravel. I really like seeing this cast – and can imagine a live-action version where they’re even more fully realized – while the artwork for the whole thing is just fantastic. That and the color work from Ronda Pattinson over-deliver when it comes to the look of it all and makes it thoroughly engaging. I’m eager to dig more into this to see just how badly things go and what twists will come from it all.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: IDW
Release Date: August 17th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
