Red Rider #2 Teufelsberg – Comic Book Review
Last time we enjoyed the very gritty looking first album of Red Rider, which is pretty much the present day interpretation of the Standaard Uitgeverij’s other series, De Rode Ridder, which revolves around Johan the valiant knight. Now Johan makes place for John, a.k.a. Red, who rides a metal steed, instead of a horse. John’s profession is a lot less valiant than a knight’s as he is a simple package courier, with a past we get to learn a bit about in this second issue. We were quite curious to see how the prophecy of the first album would unfold in this album.
It’s clear that this issue is an intermezzo as the story revolves around Red’s character, all while the evil presence of the series B’hal, is trying to gain control of a shard that Merle is protecting. The latter trades in the key of unlocking potential doom over the entire planet for some pocket change to score some drugs. It’s clear that this modern ‘Merlin’ has given up on life and simply wants to do everything to avoid living the mundane life all of us mortals go through, whilst being nearly immortal himself. Red’s shop gets raided to find clues on where the package might find itself and that’s pretty much all we can spoil for this issue.
The flow of this issue is a bit slower, as the characters already have been introduced and now there’s a bit of time to paint the picture of Red’s life and how he turned out to be the grizzly and rugged man he is today. We also get to see how Celeste’s home situation currently is, and it seems that the redheaded lady has taken a liking to Red, or at least a certain interest. Lectrr does a great job at teasing the rest of the series, but we can’t help but feel that a lot has to happen in the third, and so-called last issue, in order to round up the series and present us with a full-fledged tale.
Stedho helps paint the proper setting for the series, by keeping everything rather filthy in this somewhat grim interpretation of our world. It sometimes feels like Celeste is the only beacon of light in this world, and Stedho makes her stand out by making her the prettiest character around. The environments feel somewhat desolate, but cluttered at the same time, adding to a somewhat ‘end of days’ scenario.
Conclusion
Red Rider #2 Teufelsberg is a very interesting issue, but it’s a clear in-between part of the stories as not that much is happening that tells us more about the bigger picture. Nonetheless, the shard that might unlock an evil presence is getting closer to the clutches of those who seek to harm this world, all while Red relives parts of his former life. We can’t wait to see what the third part of this trilogy has in store for us.
Red Rider #2 Teufelsberg - Comic Book Review,
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