The Weather Man vol. 2

It still sucks to be Nathan Bright.  After escaping the pay-per-view VR murder marathon from the previous volume, he now finds himself heading back to Earth with (former?) government operative Amanda Cross and her mercenary pals.  Why are they doing this after Earth was hit with a virus that has killed 18 billion of its inhabitants (so far)?  Because Nathan used to be a member of the Sword of God mercenary outfit that started the outbreak, only he wiped his mind after he couldn’t deal with the guilt.  The drive containing Ian’s memories is on Earth, sooooooo… that’s where everyone has to go.

The bad news is that after the virus has killed someone, it turns them into a gaseous form that can reconstitute itself into a near-unkillable mockery of human life.  The good news is that the sheer amount of victims has led to helpful mutations, like the big blue fuzzy bear named Pickles that helps out disabled kid sniper Pace.  Which is cool because Nathan and his comrades are going to need all the help they can get to track down this memory drive.  Even if they do, can Nathan really commit to effectively killing himself in order to bring back a stone-cold psycho murderer?

This may all sound kinda bleak, but writer Jody Lehup and artist Nathan Fox are committed to making vol. 2 of “The Weather Man” as much of a romp as the first one was.  They don’t quite get there, on account of the fact that this volume doesn’t feel quite as focused as the first one and the cliffhanger presented here is a real love it or hate it proposition.  Still, I think the creators get close enough to call it a win, what with Lehup’s clever dialogue and Fox’s go-for-broke intensity whether he’s illustrating a tense conversation between cast members or having a giant robot fight off a flesh-beast-monstrosity.  The forthcoming third volume is advertised here as the concluding one, which is something that I’ll definitely be sticking around for.