Boy Zero: Volume Two [Part Three] - Caliber Comics

BOY ZERO: VOLUME TWO, May 2016

If ever there was a chapter to a graphic novel which ensured that after reading it, the majority of its audience would then later return to its long-running narrative’s earlier instalments, it must surely be “The Christian Reformation”. For although the thirty-one page segment provides a satisfyingly, pulse-pounding ending to all the Machiavellian machinations taking place within Glass City, it also includes lots of wonderful nods back to the book’s earlier events, such as why the opening to “Boy Zero” begins with the foreshadowing of the metropolis’ fate by depicting a broom sweeping a street clean of burning detritus.

However, besides containing lots of visual pointers to its past, Charles Chester’s script also manages to throw a bit more light upon Detective Drekker’s illustrious career within the police force, and “cement him as a fallen hero of tragedy.” Indeed, despite the overweight investigator now needing a walking cane with which to perambulate, the man’s cognisance of the disaster about to erupt within his jurisdiction seems to imbue Nigel with some of the vigour not seen since his earlier days. Such unusual vivacity, coupled with the aforementioned flashback to his more “wide-eyed and hopeful” days as a uniform rookie bringing justice to a “maniac cop”, neatly bookends the protagonist’s profession. 

The “award-winning filmmaker” also does a good job of explaining just how come the ‘wrong’ killer was found at Joan Hagen’s flat. John Ficher’s coincidental presence inside the female author’s abode at the same time as Christian could easily have proved a contrived red herring, but fortunately its serendipity provides a plausible explanation as to just why Susan’s son takes the job as a maintenance man at the local cathedral and accumulates the technological equipment needed to broadcast his cry across the municipality; “Now, Mister Fisher. Tell me about your broadcasts…”

In addition, this comic makes such an impact upon the memory because of Shiloh Penfield’s harrowing depictions of violent slaughter and citywide calamities. Of particular note is the artist’s pencilling of a large jumbo jet crash-landing onto the one Glass City’s packed roads and literally sweeping all before its enormous wings in a truly terrifying wave of annihilation. The subsequent sight of a truly traumatised Edmund, silently curled up with his face in his hands, and surrounded by the corpses of the dead, is simply mind-numbing and just as impactful upon the senses as Kip’s earlier, terrified realisation that an aircraft is about to fall out of the sky.

Written by: Charles Chester, and Artwork by: Shiloh Penfield