Comics: Rough Riders: Ride Or Die #2 - Reviewed




Ride or Die #2 is out now

Rough Riders: Ride or Die #2 continues a new tale in AfterShock’s Rough Riders series, which is about a group of American legends who team up to save America from some of its greatest and otherworldly threats. The group consists of Teddy Roosevelt, Annie Oakley, Thomas Edison, Jack Johnson, Harry Houdini, and Monk Eastman. Ride or Die is like a twisted combination of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Constantine, pitting these iconic individuals against the darkest of supernatural elements.

Issue 1 of Ride or Die set the stage for the events of the series. The group has been disbanded for some time until Houdini calls them back after a supernatural entity was unleashed upon the world during a seance. The only thing that they knew at the time was that the entity was named “The Master.” Houdini calls the rest of the group back together to investigate and stop what is being unleashed on America. Issue 1 saw each character paired into groups of two as they traveled to different cities investigating various aspects of the mysterious events occurring. 

Issue 2 opens up with some of the heroes dealing with the perils that were laid out before them at the conclusion of the first issue. This new book really packs in the action and begins to resemble something similar to the Army of Darkness books and other zombie/evil entity themed horror books. Combined with the great deal of action and violence spewed across the pages, there is also enough humorous banter between the characters to lighten up the tone. They all have issues with each other and it shows in how they talk and react with one another, which makes for some entertaining moments. When the group eventually joins back up, we learn a little bit more about what exactly they are dealing with (I will not spoil what it is). The final splash page is simply outstanding and should have readers looking forward to what lies ahead in the group's journey.

Once again, the art from Patrick Olliffe is superb and totally embodies the gothic look of the era. It is full of heavy black shading, intricate details, linework and hatching. Olliffe displays painstaking detail in the real-life characters, as well as the overall facial gestures and body movements of everyone portrayed in the book. The action scenes look terrific as well, but the most memorable pieces are the horror infused splash pages. They are terrific. The colors from Gabe Eltaeb continue to perfectly compliment the time period and embody what you would normally expect to see in a horror comic.

If you missed out on issue 1, now is the time to jump on the Ride or Die train. This series really kicks it into high gear in this issue and it is only looking to get better and more horrific as time goes on. 

-RV