In the second issue, Firebreather takes off in a somewhat unexpected direction, and I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. The high school outcast elements are still there, and well done, but the story delves a little more into Duncan's father and the man I had assumed would be hunting them both, and it's a fun and unusual take on the concept of parental custody sharing. It's actually a fun and unusual take on an already unusual concept in general, and I wound up getting a few chuckles and plenty of enjoyment out of this issue.
The story is all over the map this issue, and that's a good thing. You've got your dodgeball, your teen bonding, your unsuccessful male bonding and birds and bees talk, an aerial action sequence and the first on-panel meeting of half-monster son and all-monster father. There's a lot to take in this issue, and Hester and Kuhn give the reader a pretty good indication of what Duncan's life has been like, just as they indicated what his school life has been like in the previous issue. It's also nice that Hester knows he's playing with archetypes here, and so he doesn't spend a lot of time establishing what's obvious, like the Godzilla reference of Belloc or the similarities to Nick Fury of Colonel Barnes.
What's really neat is that Hester goes into all the really cool and weird stuff that results from a character like Duncan without losing the real high schooler feeling. Duncan's interaction with the kids at school, including his guilt over what he does to Troy (despite the jerk not deserving it) or the way he interacts with Jenna and Dre, is as solid as anything you'll find in Ultimate Spider-Man, which is the highest compliment I can pay a high school based book these days. However, Hester and Kuhn don't lose the fun and wild stuff, like having a "kindly uncle" who is a take-no-guff UN superspy or a dad who thinks nothing of using undiscovered paintings by legendary painters as currency.
Kuhn really pulls out all the stops here, with a "Lord of the Flies"-esque vision of dodgeball, a fantastic take on the action sequence that features two characters plummeting toward the ground and a rather impressive lair for Belloc. I'm still not as impressed by Crabtree's colors, which make way too heavy a use of orange and red and seem kind of flat and dull, but they're not bad so much as they could be better.
I thought I'd figured out where Firebreather was going from the first issue, but it turns out that Hester has a few surprises up his sleeve, and I'm actually quite looking forward to the next issue. I'm also hoping for more of Colonel Booshwa Barnes, a fun side character who gets some of the best lines in the issue, as much as I'm wanting to see what happens with Duncan, Belloc and the rest.
