The story of Erice Slaughter is a solid horror story that promises the audience bloody battles with monsters, fast-paced action and a bit of mystery. Therefore, I approached the reading without excessive expectations for the following chapters. In fact, it would be enough for the authors to keep the level of the first volume, and if they could somehow lift it up, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. You can clearly feel the decline in quality, and reading the second volume does not give already such satisfaction and .
What is lame in the second part of the comic is the script. It seems that James Tynion IV had only a general idea about the world depicted, characters and what else the protagonist can face and did not have time to refine it. In a short story, the understatements are acceptable, and sometimes they even work in favor of the story, keeping the action going fast. However, from the sequel, readers have the right to expect the plot to develop and deepen the characteristics of the characters.
“Something is Killing the Kids”, volume 2 – sample comic pages
You had one task
As I mentioned in the review of the first part, the creators initially planned to close Something Kills Kids in the form of a five-episode mini-series. However, the screenwriter left a convenient door to continue the story and a lot of threads that could be developed in an interesting way in the following chapters.
The monster that harassed the people of Archer’s Peak has been defeated. Now, both Erica and the townspeople have to face the consequences of this event. The sheriff and the coroner are faced with the task of tidying up the scene of the slaughter and passing the tragic information to the families of the victims. Relatives of missing children face unimaginable despair and mourning. The protagonist has a vision of confronting other monsters and her masters. Such a state of affairs gives a huge field to show off, and yet the second volume of the comic gives the impression that the author of the script lacked an idea of what to do with the story and the characters that had begun.
“Something is Killing the Kids”, volume 2 – sample comic pages
The scenes that are to show the relations between the characters are uninteresting, and their emotions are unreliable. James Tynion IV also failed to use the potential of the thread of the organization to which Erica belongs. Supposedly we learn something about the mysterious Order, the House of Slaughter and the origin of the main character, but in fact the information is scarce and it is not very fascinating, not to say banal. Similarly disappointing is the figure of Aaron, Erika’s immediate superior, and their relationship that deserved a meaningful development.
The pace of the story is also a problem. The accents were laid out in such a way that the comic was just boring. Apparently something is happening, but while reading it you get the impression of being in contact with the fictional cotton. The action scenes, after the climax from the first volume, also do not arouse special interest, and some of them are even secondary. On the other hand, what could have been the most exciting skirmish is stopped before it really started.
“Something is Killing the Kids”, volume 2 – sample comic pages
Drawings are not enough
Graphically, it is difficult to fault Werther Dell’Eder and Miquel Muerto. The drawings look just as good as in the previous chapters, and the choice of color palette and screening still works in favor of the comic. Dell’Edera often uses two boards in the form of a spread, which in the album with glued spine sometimes makes it a bit difficult to track the order of the frames. Fortunately, after a few pages composed in this way, you can get used to it, so it is not a significant drawback. The artists did their job right, however the visual aspect of the comic book is not enough to make up for the boring story.
As in the previous collective issue, there is a gallery of covers by various cartoonists at the end. Again, this is the only additional material. It’s a pity that Boom! Studios did not attempt to enrich the volume with sketches of characters or individual boards.
You need to know when to leave the stage undefeated
Something Kills Kids is a textbook example of the negative consequences of stretching the series against the original assumptions of the creators. James Tynion IV, like JJ Abrams, could create an aura of mystery and tell an interesting story based on indeterminacy, but when it came to uncovering the secrets, it turned out that he had nothing interesting to offer. Will the writer manage to correct the mistakes of the second volume in the following chapters? I have serious doubts about that.
