Terrorwar #2 - Image Comics

TERRORWAR No. 2, May 2023

If Saladin Ahmed’s intention with his script for Issue Two of “Terrorwar” was to create a truly dislikeable villain as quickly as possible, then he certainly succeeds with the utterly repellent Paulo. In fact, it’s arguably hard to approve of any of the blonde-haired bully’s “homicidal” crew, even after the squad of thieving Terrorfighters later save a world-weary Muhammad Cho and his cash-strapped team from “a Terror made of living fire” at a local nightclub.

Much of this animosity stems from a superbly penned opening which shows the arrogant oppressor muscling in upon the central character’s claim to a lucrative reward by threatening to cut poor Dmitry’s throat if the bounty beacon isn’t immediately handed over to him. The sheer sense of injustice emanating from this detestable act of cowardice is genuinely palpable, and coupled with Mena’s mean-spirited belief that she is entitled to simply take whatever her boss wants from others, probably had the odd bibliophile actually wringing this twenty-two-page periodical in frustration at the protagonists’ unfair predicament; “Call it what you want to. That money’s ours.”

To add salt to the wound though, the “Eisner winner” actually later doubles down on Paulo’s twisted viewpoint of the world by having the crook blame Muhammad for the death of Whisper, even though the heavily muscled, masked monstrosity was actually partially incinerated by a Terror. This unjust ‘might is right’ attitude by Cho’s rival demonstrates just how unwilling the sabre-wielding psychopath is to accept the consequences of his own actions, especially when the entire chain of events depicted within this comic is debatably caused by him criminally robbing his competitors of their rightful prize money.

Quite possibly this book’s sole weakness, besides containing an unhealthy amount of unnecessary expletives, therefore regrettably lies with some of Dave Acosta’s pencilling, where the American artist’s ordinarily solid line work appears slightly off target and rushed. Admittedly, these ‘lapses’ mostly manifest themselves during this publication’s opening, where several figures’ facial features, most notably those of Paulo and Mirabelle, appear rather inconsistently drawn. But they also appear later during the conclusion’s titanic team-up against a horde of multiplying "mind-bending monsters", with the contours of poor Doctor Paz and Mena’s heads appearing a little misshapen.

Written by: Saladin Ahmed, Pencils by: Dave Acosta, Inks by: Jay Leisten, and Colors by: Walter Pereyra