The Black Monday Murders vol. 2

Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker do their best to give some substance to all the style they demonstrated in the first volume of the series.  Much of that comes from the plot thread involving NYPD Detective Theo Dumas and economics professor Dr. Tyler Gaddis.  The doctor has found himself in a position to have the questions he has regarding the true nature of the market answered and he’s agreed to bring Det. Dumas along for the ride.  This leads them to a meeting with Mammon himself underneath the federal reserve and, surprisingly, some answers as well. It’s a sequence that’s creepy and thrilling in equal parts, and leaves you with a better understanding of “The Black Monday Murders’” world.

As for the stuff that doesn’t involve the detective and the professor, it’s more of the same personal posturing and physical bloodletting that drove the first volume.  Grigoria Rothschild continues to solidify her position at Caina-Kankrin, pitting her further against her brother’s murderer, Viktor Eresko. Grigoria also makes some moves to find the missing Wynn Ackerman, while her familiar continues to get her hands dirty with blood going about her master’s business.  

Again, Hickman’s dialogue is razor sharp and Coker’s art is impressively slick, to the point where it’s easy to let yourself be carried away by these things to the end of the volume.  It can’t quite distract from the fact that there’s not a whole lot of worldbuilding done in the parts of the volume that focus on Grigoria and Viktor, or the fact that some of the plot developments here feel a bit on the convenient side.  I’m still curious to see where the creators are going with this, and the volume does end on a couple of developments that seem quite promising. Which, along with all that style, is enough reason for me to keep reading “The Black Monday Murders.”