Red Knight #2 - Manos Publishing

RED KNIGHT No. 2, September 2019

Having seemingly established in this title’s opening instalment that “Norfolk belongs to Brick” - an incredibly-strong super-villain with the ability to grow to goliath proportions, Justin Cristelli’s script for Issue Two of “Red Knight” must have subverted the expectations of many of this comic’s readers with his sudden and oft-times shocking plot twists. Indeed, no sooner has this publication’s unsuspecting audience settled down to watch the gigantic drug-dealer wreak havoc upon a hapless family trapped inside a badly battered automobile, then the seemingly unstoppable seller of illegal “super powered enhancements” has been shot dead straight through the eye by a solitary police officer armed with nothing more than her strong nerves and a steady aim; “The bulletproof ones are normally vulnerable through the eyes. Remember your training.”

Equally as unforeseen is the revelation that along with Python and Pop Girl, Brick had actually stolen the “Bam” he was hoping to supply the streets with from an infinitely more cold-hearted killer known as Mister Sinclair. Evidently the head of a sophisticated syndicate, this well-dressed crime-lord clearly won’t tolerate failure or disobedience of any kind, and even goes so far as to physically manhandle one of his own managers when they neglect to clean out his business’s overflowing mouse trap in preparation for a Department of Health inspection.

Easily this twenty-five page periodical’s highlight however, has to be Over Kill and Surge's savagely violent attack upon Brick’s recuperating side-kicks at the Norfolk General Hospital. Initially, it genuinely seems that the aforementioned Mister Sinclair has arranged for Python and Pop Girl “to join Doctor Blood Banks’ crew”, especially when one of the big boss’s bullies takes a hold of the poor policeman stood guard outside the ward and gleefully wrings the officer’s neck right in front of a jubilant ‘full-body stretcher’.

But things quickly then turn sour for the low-level powered thieves when artist JC Grande graphically pencils Over Kill swiftly snapping Python’s spine too, and Surge literally fries Pop Girl alive despite first taking off the woman’s power locks and giving her “a fighting chance!” In fact, Doctor Banks’ deadly duo are significantly more frightening than Brick’s raw strength ever made him, with one of the barbaric-looking murderers even gleefully ripping out his opponent’s heart as some sort of grotesque trophy and chillingly suggesting they do the same to Red Knight once they encounter him.

Writer: Justin Cristelli, Artist: JC Grande, and Colorist: Forrester Randlet