'No One Left To Fight' Issue #2 Review: Black Eye Candy

No One Left To Fight, the new Dark Horse series from Aubrey Sitterson and Fico Ossio, is a big story. Larger-than-life heroes hopping from melodrama to melodrama on a mysterious journey during the prologue of their lives. A vibrant palette strikes your eye like a thousand E.Honda slaps and breathes neon life into exotic alien worlds. Issue #2 deepens the charater relationships and the world building in subtle but strong ways.

The tension between Vale, the biggest hero in the world, and Timor, the second-biggest hero, begins to spill over onto the characters who often find themselves caught between the two. It's not an aggressive, active rivalry; NOLTF is a story set after these heroes have had their epic adventures. The title says it all, there's no one left to fight. So what's next? Issue #2 does little to give us insight into where Vale, Timor and his wife Krysta are ultimately headed. But the first stop takes them to Mistress Harga's school where, surprise surprise, Vale was the star pupil and Timor the outcast.

A brief exchange between Timor and his kids really connected with me. The issue opens with Vale and Timor about to have an all-out backyard brawl before Krysta intervenes. As Timor grumpily hauls suitcases to the car (while a crowd gathers to catch a glimpse of the legendary Vale) his kids stop him to tell him they knew he would've won the fight if their mom hadn't stopped it. Timor cracks a small smile, and it's a great juxtaposition against the bachelor Vale who seems adored by everyone but close to no one. It weighs on him, as we see illustrated during one of Vale's unexplained psychic spells that allows him to glimpse an alternate reality where he has a life like Timor's.

Issue #2 also introduces a mysterious figure who almost certainly looks to be the Big Bad of the series, a ghoulish mystery man we see following our heroes from a distance. It's a brief appearance, and would've been easy to overlook if the final panel didn't include a classic kicker asking fans to wonder "who was that?" until Issue #3 arrives with (hopefully) more answers.

There's plenty of solid storytelling, and I don't want to recap/spoil everything. Instead I want to give some credit to the dazzling eye candy on display in Issue #2. Once again, Ossio provides gorgeous illustrations that are bright and colorful and joyful. A lot of comics overuse rusty dystopian greys and greens to make things feel more dramatic. NOLTF somehow manages to be both present and mysterious because its style is so unique you can really only enjoy the worlds in front of you. You can't imagine where it's going next. And you can't wait to get there.

No One Left To Fight Issue #2 is available now from Dark Horse Comics.