Top Cow Productions/Image Comics 2016
Written by Matt Hawkins & Bryan Hill
Illustrated by Atilio Rojo
Lettered by Troy Peteri
FBI Agent James Miller has found his way into Eden, and now he's tracking the serpent himself. While his friends on the outside try to find a way to protect him, Miller targets the criminal hiding out in a town full of them, but the man he seeks may be more than he bargained for... and the price of revenge will change FBI Agent James Miller forever.
Oh my goodness seriously it’s only issue two! Now I understand that bringing these series together is something of a monumental undertaking but to be honest I wasn’t expecting things to get off the ground and running in this direction so soon. I mean I figured something would go wrong and that there would have to be some manipulating and such but wow this took me by complete surprise!
There are two openings here one where Sam and Dwayne are talking about Jimmy and it’s more like Sam is telling Dwayne that something needs to be done since the spy equipment that Jimmy has is not working. Of all people little Jimmy the computer geek to be in Eden is not the greatest scenario but hey after last issue it’s the one they went with.
The other is Jimmy being talked to by the Mayor as she knows exactly who he is and is laying down the law here. What a powerful, scary and completely within character exchange here the characterisation here is beyond incredible. I mean it’s scary how in control she is and how little Jimmy has and it’s one of those instances where you realise that she really is one of the most powerful characters to come along in very long time. She may be cold, hard and ruthless but the intentions behind that are clear as day.
Atilio’s interiors here are phenomenal! The emotion on the characters is easy to read the use of angles and perspective, Jimmy’s face in after she pours that whiskey, the story and the confrontation later are all done in such a way that will be left breathlessly amazed. The use of the page layouts to control the flow of the story is fantastic and the use of backgrounds here are wonderfully done.
It’s the end of the issue that’ll be what i’m most interested in seeing the after effects of. It’s one of those shock the world moments that take up half the issue and I can’t talk about it because it’s that important to what’s going to happen moving forward. Suffice it to say the lives of the agents and residents of Eden will forever be changed by this and the storm that’s coming their way. The way this is being written is so gosh darn good, there’s so much going on so quickly and it’s not the normal setup it’s just wham bam thank you ma’am and we’re off to the races.
This might be the one event that combines titles into one coherent world that changes how that’s done for future generations.