While not everyone looks (or acts) their age, eventually there will come a time when time will tell on you. Not just in the physical sense, it is easy to hide those wounds, but by the way you approach things. As The Seasons Have Teeth #2 from Boom Studios shows despite the best forecast models, some things you simply can’t blame on the weatherman.
The Seasons Have Teeth #2
Summer
Created by: Dan Watters & Sebastian Cabrol
Written by: Dan Watters
Illustrated by: Sebastian Cabrol
Colored by: Dan Jackson
Lettered by: Nate Piekos of Blambot
When you’re hot, you’re hot – and this issue finds Andrew as the hottest photographer around right now. Having successfully captured a photo of a season, something that hasn’t been done, this nobody is now hoping to keep the fire burning. Whether it is pure luck or the wisdom from living, Andrew gets to be part of the press corps traveling to Bergen to track down Summer. This issue begins with Andrew on an airplane heading to this inferno infested area, where refugees flee from nature’s nature. Similar to the first issue, Dan Jackson’s almost monochrome color scheme makes this feel like a documentary series which helps this comic book feel authentically realistic.
This is because it isn’t just the seasons themselves that make this series work. The settings and locations where Andrew journeys to take pictures also have an impact on the story. With issue #1 readers were given something that felt more like a bird watching expedition. While it had the feel of a hunt things were quieter, more subdued. This tone also played out in Andrew’s first interactions with Cindy. The Seasons Have Teeth #2 feels more like a war zone report. The issue starts with Andrew seated on an airplane about to land in a hot zone. However, this time he is not alone in his attempt to capture an image of this issue’s season – Summer. Writer Dan Watters’ introduction of several more seasoned photographers brings out some interesting observations.
With The Seasons Have Teeth, series creators’ Dan Watters and Sebastian Cabrol take The Sphinx riddle to even loftier heights. Each issue examines not only the nature of the seasons but how they mimic our aging mentalities. Issue #1 saw colorist Jackson rely on green during portions, as an analogy of infancy, growth and even greed. Issue #2 uses red highlights to the time in life when we develop passion and fervor (even overindulgence) for something. It may be hard to measure a man (or woman’s) life in minutes, but once you see it segmented seasonally it will live rent free in your mind forever.
Speaking on the subject of lamentations and regrets, The Seasons Have Teeth shows that Andrew has a few. In the present, Andrew struggles to feel at ease surrounded by photographers from more famous news outlets. Cabrol’s illustrations capture the expressions as Andrew converses with these other members of the press crew. He is clearly out of his element – both he and they know it. Which is very dangerous since in The Seasons Have Teeth the elements are out to get them all. Readers witness this as a wildfire engulfs the next page, flames overtake a forest as refugees take an escape route from harm.
Andrew’s decision to follow The Times’ Aster is truly a heat of the moment decision. As he follows the famous photographer, reader’s get another flashback episode of his past. A much younger Andrew, full of vigor and less fearful, chooses to throw caution to the wind – his hot headed ego almost costing him his actual life. This also appears to be the turning point where his passion for his profession and possibly his love life slowly burned out. A red tinted flashback shows that this may be what cost him Cindy.
The Seasons Have Teeth #2 continues this series’ magnificent manipulation of our basic understanding of the seasonal calendar. By transforming what is seen as environmental, even primordial entities, into a physical manifestation – complete with identity and intention – The Seasons Have Teeth will have readers questioning each chapter of their own life in much the same way that Andrew does. Attempting to see your life, the transitions and turning points as more than scattered pictures.
Score: 9.3