We Only Find Them When They’re Dead vol. 2: The Stealer

The first volume of writer Al Ewing and artist Simone Di Meo’s series about God-harvesters in space felt more like a prequel than a proper first chapter.  That feels like less of a problem with this volume as the overall arc and goals of the series become clear.  “The Stealer” picks up nearly 40 years after the last scene in vol. 1.  You know, the one where a God who looked very much like Captain Georges Malik came bursting through the void looking to unleash Hell on those unlucky enough to be in his way.  That didn’t come to pass as he wound up just as dead as those before him, only far more venerated.  The God That Was Georges Malik (if that’s even the case) is now an object of intense religious focus with a colony springing up around him to safeguard his divine essence from those who would use it for their own ends.  Such as those of the Inner Worlds who have very specific plans for said essence.

I realize I’ve said very little about the actual plot of vol. 2, but you’ll be able to put the general gist of it together if you focus on what I wrote, along with the volume’s subtitle.  What we wind up getting is a twisty little caper that helps to flesh out the world of “We Only Find Them When They’re Dead” even more while also illustrating just how duplicitous human beings can be to each other in pursuit of their goals.  When they have them, that is.  There’s one character here who isn’t sure what they want and it’s that uncertainty that helps drive the tension leading up to the volume’s climax.

It’s all good stuff that’s well-illustrated by Di Meo, who shifts between small-scale human stuff and big space-opera setpieces quite well.  My only real issue here is with something that’s out of the creator’s hands, and that would be the fact that vol. 3 is going to be the series’ finale.  Despite a strong start sales-wise, it appears that “We Only Find Them When They’re Dead” didn’t quite catch on in the same way that fellow BOOM! title “Something is Killing the Children” did.  Which is a shame because it felt like this world and its Gods were worth exploring in more detail.  In any event, things are set up for a proper finale by the end of this volume as it looks like Mr. Malik may wind up having to answer for his obsession after all, from a certain point of view.