Tangle & Whisper Issue 2 [Comic Review]

With issue 2,we’re now officially at the half way point of Tangle and Whisper’s mini-series. This essentially builds up the main conflict and sets up next month’s transitional issue. Let’s dive right in.

• Tangle & Whisper Issue 2
• IDW Publishing
• Story: Ian Flynn
• Art: Evan Stanley
• Colours: Leonardo Ito

As always, I’m starting with the cover. I got Cover B by Nathalie Fourdraine, and it’s a lovely piece of Tangle the Lemur and Mimic, drawn in her outline-free style. It’s a really nice cover, so I’m happy with that. Cover A is by issue artists Evan Stanley, and Cover RI is by Jennifer Hernandez.

The general art of the issue is wonderful. Evan is gloriously consistent in her work, and that really shines through here. Tangle, in particular, is delightful in her sheer number of facial expressions, and the action sequences are wonderfully executed. Leonardo also deserves some credit for his colour work here. He has just the right amount of shading to fit the style of art and still make the characters pop against the background, as well as some good use of lighting effects in the backgrounds. Meanwhile, I also love the series’ habit of using different colour backings outside the panels depending on setting and situation.

From a story standpoint, the issue does a really good job of displaying the difference between Tangle and Whisper’s style of combat. It makes sense that Whisper is calmer too given her history as a mercenary. We got some excellent character progressions points too. In terms of Tangle, she clearly really cares about her friends, and the way she approaches talking to Whisper was nicely done. She picked up on Whisper’s hurt but didn’t push things too hard. Towards the end, she also got to show some quick thinking, essentially saving both her and Whisper by putting herself in a position that scared her.

Meanwhile, Whisper gets a few snaps of over the top emotion here, which is a first for her. Because of her usual reluctance to show emotion, each instance felt really impactful. It helped make it really clear how personal this issue was to her, and also saw a clear indication of how much she cares about her friends too. She’s as loving as Tangle really, she just displays with a protective desire to push them away when times are getting tough. Right at the end, we’re also told in no uncertain terms that we’re finally going to learn her backstory next month, and how Mimic ties into it all.

Mimic was a classic manipulative villain here. He knew how to use the titular characters strengths and turn them into weaknesses. On top of that, his final attempt to take their lives was truly cold-blooded, not to mention something that clearly took some foresight and planning. I was also happy to see us get a clear shot of Mimic this time. I’m assuming form the hair design that he’s an Octopus. Or a Lovecraftian Elder God. Either works.

In all, I really enjoyed this. The story was well-paced, it moved all the characters along their individual arcs, and I’m excited about the backstory issue next month. The visual are among my favourites so far, largely thanks to the physical nature of the two leads. This is a definite must-buy for fans of the current incarnation of Sonic comics. 5 out of 5.