Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Last Resort #2Last Resort #2 of 5
IDW Comics
Palmiotti, Gary & Caracuzzo

The plane exploded last issue and this issue deals with the aftermath. We have a couple of the characters getting a lot of panel time as opposed to the wider cast, lower face time combination from the last issue and it works to magnify the potential leaders. The issue also takes a surprising turn as it reveals parts of the reasons behind the zombies. It’s a good issue that captures the drama of the situation at hand.


Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe issue begins with the plane exploding. It’s literally a jarringly quick beginning as people are on fire, people are running around the runway and there is a ton of screaming. As the remaining passengers are evacuated the plane continues to explode as various fuel pockets ignite. This whole scene has the sense that any of the characters could bite the big one at any minute. Even as some of the characters are running away from the plane and seem to be in the clear, they get cut down by some flying debris. This is a great opening because I was literally not trying to attach myself to any one character assuming they’d be dead on the next page. Though, I was rooting for the dog.

The scene brings about two situations. The first one is that there is no one around. The airport is totally deserted and there seems to be an abundance of trashed planes. The two lead characters from the airline figure out that this is potentially a larger problem than the storm or the wounded from the explosion.

The second situation is two of the passengers do find someone who wasn’t on the plane. He’s a zombie and they kill him. However, they assume they killed a weirdo and not a zombie. This opens up an interesting situation as they seem to be as ease with killing folks and dumping them in the closet, but it also means they’ve been exposed to a zombie and you’d have to think they may be “turning” shortly.

The issue ends as two boats, near the Island, meet up. On one boat there’s a playboy and his collection of paid escorts and on the other appears to be two scientists who have inside knowledge of whatever unleashed the zombies. The interesting thing is they didn’t seem to think the zombie infestation reached the Island. Boy, are they in for a surprise.

The issue is a good one for several reasons. The comic kills off most of the non-essentials on the plane and that limits the cast a little bit. The comic shows some up close interaction with a zombie, which is necessary for establishing just how in danger they all are at all times. It gives a little high level explanation of how the zombies came about. And, finally, with the introduction of the boats it gives a way for some of the characters to actually escape down the road.

The only slight downside is we don’t really have a clear idea of which characters from the first issue survived. It’s helpful to know, but it also helps to eliminate the prospect that most of the characters that survived and are shacking up in the hanger aren’t completely expendable.

The artwork works very well in the beginning with the rain and fire blowing all over the dark airport. Between the debris and body parts flying around the artwork picks up the concept of panic very well. The art also captures the bathroom scene with the zombie very well as it builds some classic slasher film suspense. I liked the painted, unpolished coloring look to the comic. It seems to fit the story nicely.

The second issue isn’t really as comical as the previous one but there were a couple of chuckles in it. Instead, the comic really just makes the situation at hand seem very bleak, which is a good thing. I can’t wait to see how everything shakes out at the story unfolds. If you like disasters or zombies then you should probably check out this comic.

4 out of 5 geek goggles