I was rather unkind in my last review of S.H.O.O.T. First. This was mostly because their own universe collapses in on it’s own rules. This however is issue #2, and so I will give the series carte blanche under suspension of disbelief. Because once you ignore the inherent flaws of the structure of the setting, the story told in that universe is not bad. Not great, but not bad.
This comic takes us a couple months after the initial story and last time’s new member, Infidel, is still struggling to get used to what he now knows about the world. I won’t spoil the who, but it looks like he might not be the only one having a bit of a crisis of faith. To me, this is what this issue is about. Not crises of faith specifically, but it’s about the members of the team.
Bett does needlepoint and tells Infidel a little about he background and we learn why Mrs. Brookstone’s son seemed magical/cursed/nonhuman at the end of the previous issue. Byron has a much sillier sense of humor than the traditional British stereotype, but does love his alcohol. I don’t really feel like I learned much about Robot or Kenshin. This helped a lot because now I feel like the characters are actually characters, not just manikins with guns.
But the big thing that’s missing is interpersonal relationships. Not necesarily romantic, but anything between them. Bett is the one exception. Like I said, she talks to Infidel, the needlepoint (“Smile! There’s no God!”) is a gift for Byron. She acts like they are people and like she wants to get along with them and wants to know the people she’s fighting along side. The others act like player characters in games that don’t really care about getting to know the NPCs fighting beside them. I realize that some of these things take time to introduce in a series, but both of the tidbits about Bett that we know came in interpersonal interactions. Give us more of that!
This was better, but I’m still not convinced it’s worth $3.99. But at least this issue inspires hope that there is a future for this series. We’ll see.
Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and the lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew. He plays a lot of pen and paper RPGs and puts a Hell of a lot of effort into his character’s story, personality and so on. No one wants to play a gingerbread man. You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes, or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.