Fire Power vol. 2: Home Fire

A literal first issue as a complete volume, “Fire Power” vol. 1introduced us to Owen Johnson and his quest to improve his martial arts skills and learn about his parents with the inhabitants of the Temple of the Flaming Fist.  After a full volume of training, fighting, and fireballs, we got a look at where the series was really going to go as it flashed forward ten years to show us that Owen had settled into a domestic life in suburbia.  He’s got a wife, Kellie, two kids, Haley and Doug, a dog, Peanut Butter, and works as a furniture restorer.  It’s all going great for him… until the day he runs into Ma Guang at the grocery store.  His once-bitter-rival-turned-friend has come to try and bring him back to the Temple, but Owen is having none of it.  What was once a paradise for him quickly became a living Hell after his love was killed.  Though Owen wants to live his life in peace, Ma’s appearance is just the first indication that our protagonist’s past isn’t done with him yet.

Much like the first volume, “Home Fire” doesn’t do a whole lot that feels new or surprises with its general storytelling.  Even the bits that are meant to come off as a big deal — a major character changing sides, finding out that a mythical thing is actually REAL — have the touch of the familiar as writer Robert Kirkman tries to pull off the “Everything you knew was wrong!” trick after only two volumes.  This is largely forgivable because he does a great job getting the dynamics of Owen’s family down right in a way that feels believable while being set in a world of high-fantasy martial arts.  Honestly, the fact that he managed to sell the bit of relationship drama between Owen and Kellie and then resolve it in a satisfying way is honestly a little amazing in how it didn’t come off as cheap.

Then there’s Chris Samnee’s art, and it’s arguably more impressive than when he had all the trappings of a martial arts school to play with.  Not only does he give us a credible rendition of suburban normalcy, but he makes all the fighting work within that context as well.  There’s a great silent fight sequence early on as Owen tries to take out some attackers in his home, and an equally thrilling bit later as husband and wife engage in some car-fu to deal with the elite warriors that have come for them.  So even if this series hasn’t thrown anything genuinely surprising my way, its solid grip on the fundamentals of storytelling still has me engrossed in it, regardless.