I greatly enjoyed the first Black Forest, and the creative team has reunited for a sequel featuring the original characters and a slight twist on the formula that made the first one such an entertaining read. Like most sequels, The Black Forest 2 is not as good as the first, but it's still fun to revisit these characters, and Livingston, Tinnell and Vokes capture the same pulp adventure feel crossed with Universal monsters horror nicely in these pages. I remarked in my earlier review that some of the characters could have used more backstory, and that flaw is more evident in the sequel, as we really get little explanation for how our heroes wound up imprisoned in a castle, or for that matter how they know each other, and unless the events of Black Forest are fresh in one's mind, you're unlikely to recall, say, who Ilsa is and how she's related to the lead characters.
That said, Livingston and Tinnell have crafted a pretty good nemesis for Black Forest 2, a scientist for the Kaiser who reads like a stand-in for the Nazi mad scientists of so many pulp adventures. His ape soldiers' appearance lead me to believe that Black Forest 2 might involve Mr. Hyde in the same way that the first volume involved vampires and Frankenstein's Monster, but the Hyde reference is more subtle, and it's closer to a combination of the experiments of Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Moreau. As you might guess from that list of monsters, Black Forest 2 is again a treat for those with a fondness for the classic monsters, and the ape-men make great adversaries, brutish and dangerous and inhuman, with all the power that a good monster should have in storytelling terms.
I'm still a little weirded out by the apparent youth of Jack Shannon, who looks too young to drive, much less serve as ace pilot and two-fisted hero of the story, but that's really the only gripe I have with Vokes's artwork, which is otherwise very solid. There's a lovely graywash over the whole thing, and a tendency to use shadow very effectively, that sets the mood and captures the general vibe of old school monster movies. The dripping, bloody fangs of Ilsa as she looks up in horror at what she's become are very effective, and the end of this volume presents a fairly horrific scene as well. Vokes also does some very nice action sequences in the course of the book, most notably a memorable moment when Jack makes use of a painting to slide down a set of stairs.
Of course, while I'm not entirely sold on Jack as action hero as opposed to Jonny Quest-like youthful adventurer, I am completely taken in by Archie, the mystic who is really the lead character in all of this. His world-weary personality makes him an interesting counterpart to Jack's youthful vigor, and he gets a number of memorable moments in this issue, from the use of a hidden pistol to his reactions to the magical artifact room.
In a lot of ways, it feels like Black Forest 2 doesn't quite have enough room, leaving out a good chunk of exposition and resolving things almost as fast as the problem is introduced. Given that the book also includes a Wicked West backup story, this obviously isn't an issue of page count but of deliberate pacing, and I think that Tinnell and Livingston would definitely benefit from slowing things down a bit and giving the story room to breathe, but the story does work as is, as a fast-paced pulp adventure with classic monster overtones.
