Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Incognito #2
Icon (Marvel Comics)
Brubaker & Phillips
The first issue was about introducing the characters, but this issue begins to introduce a plot and puts the characters on their way to some interesting collisions. As is the case with Criminal, this series is picking up steam with the second issue and throws in some good curve balls to make sure you aren’t too confident in the outcome. The “bad” guys are also starting to take some shape here. This is a very good issue.
If you are familiar with Criminal (then you probably are already reading Incognito) you know that not everything is exactly as it seems. For example, the good guy really is a scumbag or the sweet girl he finds is really a serial killer looking to ensnare some prey. Incognito is no different.
Zack finds himself a sidekick. This sidekick, Farmer, works with him and happens to be a dirt-bag like Zack is pretending to be. Farmer likes to drink, talk about conspiracies and make fun of others in their office. He’s perfect for Zack because he just doesn’t care. However, by the end of the comic it becomes clear there is more to this Farmer fellow.
Zack’s love-hate interest, Amanda, also plays an interesting role in this comic. She’s stuck up and wont talk to people she deems as losers, like Zack. Yet she seems to have an “easy” side to her when she drinks, as we’ve seen last issue. However, this issue she reveals an even darker side to her personality that puts her even more into Zack’s old world when he was working on the sly for the organization.
The comic also begins to piece together some of the real villains of the story. Zack had makers and handlers from back in the day that begins to reveal their ugly mugs in this issue. We start to get drips of what happened and how everything went down that got Zack’s brother killed and his identity as well.
The comic is weaving a story within the story at this point and it does magnificently. The artwork sets the tone from the very beginning that this is a story with a lot of unlikable characters doing shady things. Even the parole officer just looks dislikable before he opens his mouth.
This comic is starting to become a crime heist with a sprinkle of love with the looming cloud of international conspiracy. I think it’s shaping up to be every bit as good as Criminal, even if it has an element of super powers in it.
4 out of 5 geek goggles
