My first thought every time I go to review this title from BOOM! Studios will always be – why couldn’t they pick a shorter name? Stands out I guess. For any that watched The Witcher, this issue may feel like a slightly more organized, yet similar, form of story telling. We Only Find Them When They Are Dead 2 does a lot of time jumping, and while it may do it better than The Witcher, like the Witcher it still breaks up the story and makes it a bit harder to follow.
We Only Find Them When They Are Dead 2 – Crew Dynamics
The jumping back and forth through time makes the storyline in the present pretty small. At the same time it really fills us in on the backstory of the Vihaan II’s crew. Only four people man this ship, but these four share a rather mixed history with each other. Captain Georges Malik commands the Vihaan II, and as we already know, wants to find a living god instead of just harvesting their dead bodies.
Jason Hauer, the engineer, apparently slept with the Captain a year back. We kind of get the feeling its over, but you can still throw that complication into the crew interaction pool. He needs to find a meaning in life beyond harvesting dead gods, so he goes all in on Georges plan to break protocol and hunt them down.
Then we meet Jason’s sister Ella. She is the coroner on the Vihaan, and apparently disagrees with this god hunting plan – vehemently! She calls the plan stupid, but when her attempt to shut down her brother’s plan to join up backfires, she goes along to protect her little brother.
Alice Wirth, the quartermaster, of course comes with a history as well. We do not know the full involvement between her and Georges, but the feelings run deep. Her flashback suggests she may only be a friend, but Alice is the type of friend one counts on no matter what. Lovers or no, her loyalty belongs at Georges’ side. Her little flashback also suggests Georges’ life went terribly wrong 30 years ago. It sounds like his family died on a mission he should have been on, but food poisoning saved him. In this, we may begin to understand his need to find living gods.
We Only Find Them When They Are Dead 2 – Party of Four…Plus One.
So that sums up our happy little crew of four right? Not so fast. Apparently the harvesting of god bodies comes highly regulated. When word leaks out Control’s top escort pilot is not in the rotation, a slew of ships make illegal runs for it. Vihaan II becomes one of a half dozen ships breaking the law. There lies one major difference between the Vihaan II and the other ships, though. The other ships do not operate under the command of a captain who seriously pissed off Control’s #1 escort pilot – Paula Richter.
When Vihaan II makes its break for the gulf between galaxies, Richter, who had been hiding under another pilot’s call sign, makes a break for the Vihaan. Despite orders to let her go. Despite the Vihaan breaking for territory in the middle of nowhere on a suicidal run, and despite pleas from Georges to break off, Paula Richter follows them into hyperspace, hell bent on catching them.
I do not know what history there is between Richter and Georges, but it’s not good. One would think Georges pissed her off, but yet he says he forgives her which appears to shift the blame to her. Whatever accident happened on that day to kill loved ones she wants Georges dead! You know Richter plays a major role when she keeps getting her own cover.
This issue goes a bit slow through out the beginning, but when the Vihaan II makes a break for light speed, its interests perk back up. Issue 1 did a nice job starting the story, but this is only issue #2 after all. They still need to set up a lot of things, but I cannot wait for issue #3 to see where this all leads too!
