By Keigen Rea — Wicked Things #2 has bright spots, but is unable to really succeed because it ties itself too tightly to the whodunnit genre. 

This issue has Lottie spend most of her time in a cell, with the moving parts being the detectives investigating the murder and Lottie’s friend Claire. It’s a menagerie of necessary whodunnit tropes with delightful character moments sandwiched in between. In many ways, it feels like a series of scenes that need to happen so we can get to the next one, which is both expected of a second issue, and disappointing. Expected because second issues tend to get weighed down with exposition, but disappointing because, wow the whodunnit/detective genre is well-tread territory. I understand that it’s a genre that makes it easier to keep a plot running, but there are very few reasons to cover the obvious beats when Knives Out, Veronica Mars, Hawkeye, Brooklyn 99 and the roughly 100 Law & Order series have already done it. Wicked Things uses ideas that we see so often in entertainment and it really doesn’t interact or play with those ideas to a meaningful degree. 

On the other hand, where this issue shines, it’s blinding. Lottie eating beans will be one of my favorite moments in comics this month, and the end of the issue changes the status quo in an exciting way. And like, this is by the team that made Giant Days. I believe it’s gonna be great. This title is still warming up, and I’ll give them all the time they need to get hot, which is to say: while I wasn’t into this issue, I fully expect the series to blow me away. It just might work better as a trade than as monthly single issues. 

I expect this will be a small misfire at the start of a great, hopefully very long-running series. 

Overall: This issue is plot heavy in a genre that is incredibly well tread. If you like Giant Days, this feels exactly like an average issue of that, but lacking much of the uniqueness of that beloved series. 6/10

Wicked Things #2 - REVIEW

Wicked Things #2
Writer: John Allison
Artist: Max Sarin
Colorist: Whitney Cogar
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: BOOM! Studios 
Price: $3.99
At the Savoy Hotel, in the aftermath of an attack on legendary detective Kendo Miyamoto, Lottie Grote finds herself the number one suspect in a potential murder investigation. There might be a way out, though, but only if she's willing to make a deal with the devil... Scotland Yard!
Release Date: June 24, 2020
Buy It Digitally: Via comiXology

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Keigen Rea has quite a bit of Baja Blast on hand and is staring at it, with anxiety and longing. Tweet him @prince_organa.