And Then I Read: JOHN BYRNE'S NEXT MEN 2

Images © John Byrne.

Now that the recap of issue 1 is out of the way, John has chosen to advance his story by the time-honored device of throwing members of his team individually into different places of peril. Actually it's different places and times here. Antonia, a black woman, finds herself in the southern U.S. during our Civil War, with predictable results. Other characters are thrown into Nazi Germany during World War Two and England several hundred years ago. As a plot device, this keeps things moving as we can't help sympathizing with the characters trying to deal with their new realities, and mostly not doing so well. I have to say the places and times chosen seem somewhat predictable, easy targets.

Byrne's art looks good, more polished in the rendering and inking than some of his other recent work, continuing from issue 1 to follow what I recall of the style used for the original series. It works for me.

I'll continue reading, enjoying the melodrama, but I can't help feeling that there are not going to be many surprises ahead. Hope I'm wrong.

Recommended.