Ryder On The Storm, Driver For The Dead #2 and Time Bomb #2 - Comic Review

Living in a world wracked by the perceptions of good versus evil imbues some characters with a certain sense of skewed conscience. Whether it be a detective story accelerated with a sense of knowing, a hyper-kenetic "Death" junkie who plays the world of the after-life with an inevitable breakdown belief or Special Ops time travel that affectates the heart of World War II with modern blood, the stories reflect the Radical perception of characters in a state of flux.Ryder On The Storm (Radical Premiere) The inherent vision of a gumshoe motif begins with a forensic push of a noir novel with a tinge of "Blade Runner". It vengeance is placed in the ideal of demons moving the power of a city through an elitist dynasty. Like "Blade", the idea is personified by the impetus of crime and who controls it. But in structure, the sexual connotation plays more like "Basic Instinct" with behind-the-scenes kink and drug use percolating right below the surface. Identity isn't the culprit here. The circulation has to do more with a sense of belonging. Ryder, a PI, gets a call from the highly placed girlfriend of a rich club owner who happened to drill through his head with a power tool 11 times. The open and shut pursuit of the case leads to Monk, who himself is a Demon Killer but doesn't betray his knowledge. The climax of the first installment plays to the vision of the undead with quite bringing it full circle. Time will tell.Driver For The Dead (#2 of 3) The mythology reflects in the mix of "The Transporter" with the affectations of "True Blood" and some of the undead stylings of "Pirates Of The Carribean". Like Ryder, its vision wanders with a sense of knowing, even if it characters do not. Like "The Shining" imbued the Overlook, so the unworldly power of Louisiana vexes through the texture of this comic. Graves, the driver, retrieves the young great-granddaughter of a powerful healer who has met his end naturally. His lifeforce however was the only intent that kept the necromancers at bay. In transporting his body, Graves brings the pressure of evil against him. The leader of the undead is seeking to consolidate his power by adding parts of magic to his body from various "gifted" people. After learning of Graves' childhood and the loss of his parents after a series of race car accidents, a guardian of hilllbilly proportions emerges from the light to provide a sense of focus by which to defeat. The green tinges of the art mixing with the swamp mentality gives an undeniable feeling of the area while still maintaining a ghostly hue while the straggly gore gives ode to the original "Swamp Thing" motif.Time Bomb (#2 of 3) The altruistic tendencies of a world lost follows the narrative of a special ops team progressing back in time (ala "Timeline") to affectate the changing of a timeline. Putting a badass full offensive unit replete with African Americans and women soldiers in the bastion of World War II does represent some interesting cultural and structural inlays. The most interesting involves the misdirects that the team uses on non-suspecting people of the age who don't quite perceive their attackers. The angled perceptions of the Nazis in terms of the art provide a rigid ideal of their vilified thinking which when contrasted with the dead eyes of the team simply show a different intent. The art has a rogue technicality to it which makes it almost vintage in its portrayal. Unlike some other recent inlays, the narrative structure of fixing the past which seems intent on resetting itself offers a little bit of mind tectonics but the simple belief of the team to do whatever they want makes the guessing proportion a bit more fun.