The long awaited season 2 of Naomi has begun!
Issue one came out on the 8th or 9th or something, about a week and a half ago, and I finally made it down to the LCS. Noticed a disappointing lack of conversation about it here. I know Naomi has fans here so where y'all at? Did I miss a thread? Or is everyone just too distracted with the upcoming Dark Crisis?
In any case, the sequel mini starts off with all the promise and potential of the original.
Spoilers are welcome, so reader beware, but I myself will pass on a detailed review in favor of a few random thoughts. My posts are long enough without a deep dive into literary analysis!
First off, Campbell's art is as incredible as always. If anything, the man is getting better and I found myself studying each panel like a display at the Louvre. His facial expressions are some of the industry's best, and he manages to convey a sense of power in Naomi even when she's just standing still. I swear, the book is worth buying for the art alone.
The writing is just as good as last season too. Bendis' dialogue is recognizable a mile away, but I think Walker must rein in some of it because it's less....Bendis-y....than in his other work. Plot and pacing moves slowly, with lots of page space to explore small emotional moments, just as with last season. But despite moving slow, the pacing is consistent and steady, something else I suspect Walker is responsible for. Regardless of who writes what, it's a well crafted piece of literature that keeps the focus on character, and not spectacle. It's slow, but satisfying.
The first few pages do a lot of the heavy lifting to catch people up on what Naomi has been doing since the end of season 1. It's only been a few weeks for her, but in talking to her therapist we get the basics on her joining the League, and while it's a big exposition dump, it doesn't feel cumbersome.
I'm digging the changes to the McDuffie household. The tension is palpable and uncomfortable; her father Greg has become angry and harsh, treating Naomi more like a soldier in boot camp than a daughter, and they argue even when they're in agreement. Naomi's mom Jen is....concerningly quiet. Not sure if she even says anything in the whole issue. Nobody is talking to each other, the marriage seems rocky, and Naomi doesn't know why things are so rough, or what to do about it. It's an interesting twist to the healthy family dynamic we saw last season, but with everything that's happened in such a short amount of time it doesn't feel forced or unnatural.
I like that she seems to be confiding in Dee more. What we see here makes it sound like Dee has been brought fully into the family action, coming around for dinner and training, and Naomi appears to spend a chunk of time with him. Her other friendships, far as we see here, are still intact but it appears to be Dee that she's talking to most. She's even considering leaving therapy because of the secrets she has to keep (Greg and Dee's status as aliens, for one thing), making Dee all the more important. We see Naomi's BFF Annabella for a panel or two, but that's it.
We get another dreamscape sequence, presumably showing Naomi's homearth (which still looks like the ruined hellscape of a dystopian urban fantasy novel). I'm still wondering what these dreams are. Are they just dreams? Does Naomi have a deeper, more subtle power we're mistaking for dreams? Is someone on "earth-N" sending these to her? In this issue it happens while she's awake and I don't recall that happening before.
The final scene is....something. Dee goes missing and it appears that someone is gunning for him; there's signs of a struggle at his garage when Naomi shows up looking for him and she finds her father already there, and armed. I doubt anyone is meant to believe he's the culprit, but given how he acted in the rest of the issue as well as his rough history with Dee, it'll probably cross Naomi's mind.
I was worried that season 2 wouldn't manage to capture the magic of the first series. After all, that mini was built on mysteries that have largely been answered (at least in the broad strokes) and with her joining the heroic community I feared the series would lose it's way and become a more standard kind of comic. But one issue in, and Bendis/Walker/Campbell are bringing back all the things that made this book work the first time around.
Quality start to a new season. Can't wait to see where it goes!