Half-Past Danger 2: Dead To Reichs #2 Review

Half-Past Danger 2: Dead To Reichs #2

Creator: Stephen Mooney
Colorist: Triona Tree Farrell
Publisher: IDW Publishing

A Review by Stacy Dooks

Sequels to a popular work are always a dicey prospect. On the one hand, when an audience has a great time with a particular property, it’s a safe bet that they’ll want more of what they’ve enjoyed. Consequently, the challenge inherent in a sequel is to hopefully provide what the audience liked about the original work, while simultaneously expanding on what came before, so as to both reassure and intrigue your audience. Fortunately for Half-Past Danger 2: Dead To Reichs #2, Stephen Mooney know what he’s doing, and he does it quite well indeed.

When we last saw Tommy “Irish” Flynn and his superhuman partner Nazi-busting John Noble, they’d just run into their one-time compatriot Emma Moss. Emma, formerly of MI6, had left them to die in their previous adventure on an uncharted, dinosaur-populated island. Emma had been ordered by a mysterious cabal to obtain information about a diabolical, biological weapon the Nazis were harvesting. It seems this cabal may have provided the Nazis with that data, and work on a pathogen that could bring the free world to its knees seems well underway. The only way to develop a vaccine is with the genetic material of a dinosaur, but, given that Tommy sacrificed the dinosaurs to thwart the Axis, that leaves only one candidate left: the baby velociraptor adopted by the last member of the adventuring quartet, Monomoto. Of course, given that he left the group on somewhat chilly terms, this may not be as easy as it sounds. Also, after she betrayed them so callously last time, can Irish and Noble really trust Moss? But, on the other hand, with so much at stake, can they afford not to?

Like most sequels, Half-Past Danger 2: Dead to Reichs #2 has to accomplish a few things at once: it needs to catch us up on our heroes; it needs to build on what came before; and, it needs to do it bigger than last time. So far we’re working on the first two items, with the final element forthcoming (but the build is by no means slow). Yes, there’s an element of exposition here as we establish the stakes and get caught up on just what Moss has been up to since the climax of the first Half-Past Danger serial, but Mooney is skillful enough to be sure to throw in a ninja attack once the initial push of exposition is done. He definitely gives each of his characters moments to shine here, and, while the first issue of the arc showed off Irish and Noble, this issue is very much Moss and Monomoto’s with each character getting a moment to show off their badassery. The art and writing by Mooney is at its cinematic-themed best, and the lettering by Farrell adds to the overall feel of this book as a kind of lost, missing link between the adventure pulps, comics, and movie serials.

The Verdict:
Buy it! Half-Past Danger 2: Dead to Reichs #2 has superhumans, ninjas, dinosaurs, spies, and soldiers all fighting the good fight against evil and looking good doing it. If you liked Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and Captain America: The First Avenger, this comic and its predecessor are must-owns. Recommended.