Furious #2 continues the story of Cadence Lark as she attempts to find redemption for her past by using her superpowers to fight crime as well as unleash her anger on criminals. However her situation is even more complicated because the media is actively trying to find out her identity and Cadence believes it’s just a matter of time before they discover that she’s the famous, and hated, Cadence Lark, and turn on her preventing her from finding that redemption in herself. And even though the media has dubbed her Furious because of the furious way she beats up criminals, and the public has mixed feelings about her, the police commissioner has standing orders to bring her in. But knowing they can’t do anything to her physically they’re the least of her concerns. However Cadence is currently oblivious to a new threat as she flies high among the clouds feeling free and safe as there’s one who knows her true identity and has a personal vendetta against her. And she won’t stop until Cadence truly suffers and faces this past. And considering this women looks remarkably similar to Cadence and that Cadence was once a triplet but the only surviving triplet after a childhood tragedy, will she be the one to finally bring Furious down? One thing is clear: this superhero life won’t be getting easier for Furious.

 I enjoyed the first issue and was extremely intrigued by the twist on the classic case of a superhero wanting to protect his/her identity and it wasn’t to protect loved ones or to maintain a normal private life but because her real identity was a hated celebrity. And I did enjoy the metaphor of her life and the out of control car she was trying to find a way to stop. I did enjoy the way this issue opened up as it did a much better job this issue of portraying her relationship with the public at large including the way the police department viewed her. And this was also done in terms of her personal life and rise to celebrity status and this backstory is told in a very smooth way connecting it with her current mentality and actions. This backstory does make Cadence a more interesting character because it starts to explain why there’s so much pent-up anger in her as well as guilt, and even though everything wasn’t revealed this issue at least there’s depth to her story that would give context to her actions and is believable. Brian Glass does an excellent job transitioning from her past to her handling current situations and using that current situation to give insight into her powers and the fact that she’s still learning how they work as a hostage situation attracts everyone’s attention. The actions of the police and others in the situation seemed excessively mistimed but it served its purpose in advancing the story and I’ll leave it like that to avoid spoilers. And Furious being a character who is a superhero, has a notorious past, and wants to find redemption within herself by fighting crime while having anger management issues, comes off as all of those things at once because of the wonderful way the story is told this issue. And of course the action is enjoyable and once again lives up to the name Furious. It’s always a good feeling when a series that starts with so much potential lives up to it as it goes along.

SUMMARY

Furious #2 is a very entertaining read as it improves on the first issue in every way from the action to character development. The story flows very smoothly and instead of just Cadence saying she has a past, we’re shown parts of that here and an excellent job is done in making her a more interesting character, and her story one that can be invested in. This issue left me even more intrigued about the events that will unfold considering the actions taken, and with the revelation that there’s one who not only knows Cadence’s true identity but is directly connected to her past creates the potential for a very gripping showdown, and one that I’m looking forward to.

Writer: Bryan J. L. Glass

Artist: Victor Santos

Release date: 2/26/14