Serial vol. 2: Cat & Mouse

Jenni, the serial killer who goes around killing men who prey on women, and the women who help them, is still at large when this volume opens.  She’s almost at the end of her list of targets, too.  That’s good because Zoe is closing in on her as well, and the bit of detective work she does at the opening of vol. 2 has delivered her a big break.  Now she just has to catch up with this killer before the cops do.  This is because it’s not enough that Jenni has to die for what she’s done.  It’s because Zoe believes she has to die badly for it.

“Serial” wraps up with this volume and I’m feeling a little mixed about that.  While I wrote last time that I thought it’d be better for this series to finish up sooner than later, creator Terry Moore does a lot of things right in vol. 2.  Chief among these is playing out the struggles between Jenni and Zoe as they try to achieve their respective goals.  Even with her decades of life experience, Zoe is still stuck with the body of a child and Jenni, for all of her planning, isn’t able to make everything go according to her plan.  Some might also have a problem with Moore playing certain scenes for extremely dark and/or absurdist comedy, but I thought that stuff worked in the first volume and it continues to do so here.

More of an issue are the occasional cartoonish flourishes the creator adds to the art which are at odds with the grounded tone he establishes here.  There’s also a last-minute development that seeks to muddy the righteousness of Zoe’s quest and a final-page reveal that couldn’t scream “SEQUEL!” harder if it tried.  That said, Moore does deliver the goods with this concluding volume, and if he wants to pick up Zoe’s adventures in another town with another cast I have to admit that I’m feeling more open to that possibility now.