Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting have both been making comics long enough to where they can make them in their sleep. They choose to not be complacent about it. With this comics venture, the team of writer and artist come to it full of energy. Velvet is a well crafted comic. It functions in the way a successful comic does: it does not take itself to seriously, it provides a vivid story, and it gets down to action from the get go. Velvet was falling out of high rise window when we last saw her. She figures out a nice save and then some.
Getting back to that visual of Brubaker and Epting asleep in their respective beds and dreaming up the script and artwork. The comic does have that sense of ease about it. There are a variety of scenes of Velvet Templeton fighting for her life, racing this way and that, and each scene is different and refreshing. No filler. No dead space. There are a number of extended bits of internal dialogue and each bit is clever, interesting, and fun to read. The ball is not dropped once. This back and forth dynamic of sharp and witty script and artwork is downright poetic.
For a moment, I wonder if a Mission Impossible Tom Cruise would have handled a similar challenge the way Velvet did. That comes to mind as Velvet has to figure out what to do when she’s suddenly airborne. I think it’s a toss up, just to give Tom his due. What Velvet does next, right after flying out of a window, is a fine moment in comics. This whole issue is a fine moment in comics and it looks like it will just keep getting better.
Velvet #2 is available now. Visit our friends at Image Comics here.
