I asked the question in my review for Rain #1: What Now? Honeysuckle had lost the one she loved. Her world flipped upside down by the raining of literal nails from the sky. With issue #2 my question is answered, and with it comes the tale of a woman picking her life back up by continuing and remembering Yolanda. In search for her now dead girlfriends father in Denver, Honeysuckle walks through nails and death on her journey. Rain #2 is great and continues a story that began with questions, and now is heading towards answers.
IMAGE COMICS
STORY BY: JOE HILL
ADAPTATION BY: DAVID M. BOOHER
ART BY: ZOE THOROGOOD
COLORS BY: CHRIS O’HALLORAN
Story
What now? Well what now is Honeysuckle puts on a “good pair of shitkickers” and moves forward. I was so happy to see her pick herself up, and to think very selflessly. She does not wallow in her loss, she realizes there are others who have lost as well. The story moving forward was exactly what I was hoping for and we got just that.
New characters and even some zealots are introduce in issue #2. The inclusion of new characters to the story makes Honeysuckles journey that much more perilous, but also interesting for us the reader. The reveal at the end of issue #2 also helps the progression of the story. Its not just as simple as Honeysuckle making her journey in peace and living happily ever after. Her journey is going to include more death and more obstacles. The rain was just the beginning.
Art
Pacing through art. Through what our eyes can see. Tragedy has struck Honeysuckle and her family, and the thousands of other families affected by the rain. Within the first few pages of the 2nd issue, pacing is slow and deliberate. The art shows us exactly what we need to see, without shoving it down out throats. The first we see of Honeysuckle is her on the floor, head between her knees, deep in grief. The art doesn’t show us everything that Honeysuckle had to do to honor Yolanda. It doesn’t have to. We know from the small panels that the pain that Honeysuckle is feeling is deep and debilitating. This is all in the first few pages.
The art the rest of the way picks up a bit. Honeysuckle is off and running, she has a mission. With it comes more characters and more interactions. There is general sadness to all the characters we meet, even if they don’t feel that way. Thorogood has a way with character designs that screams emotion. Every character we see is sad, after the events that have and are continuing to transpire, can we blame them? But behind the sadness, is also hope, a longing to find that bright spot on the horizon.
Overall Enjoyment
What now? Well what now is Honeysuckle keeps moving forward. Never back. There is a lot of messaging in Rain so far. Issue #2 tells us never back down. Put on your best shitkickers and put one foot in front of the other.
Looking for more comic book content? Go check out the latest episode of Geeks WorldWide Radio‘s TLDR podcast, where Joseph Gilmore and Nick Friar discuss comics weekly and talk to creators from the industry — available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts and Spotify!