Crimson Reign #2 - Comic Review

Lady Qi’ra, apprentice to Darth Maul, leader of Crimson Dawn, continues to sow chaos throughout the criminal underworld of the Star Wars galaxy. Crimson Reign #2 finds her utilizing some high-level assassins at her disposal to enact a few dangerous tasks. Through manipulation due to knowing exactly what motivates her pawns, she tasks both Deathstick and Ochi of Bestoon to do some incredible stuff. Ochi of Bestoon is to accept a hit on someone who is close to the Emperor to show that his space is vulnerable. Deathstick’s goal is to go after the one child who can unite two of the biggest crime syndicates in the galaxy: Cadeliah, heir to the Unbroken Clan and Mourner’s Wail syndicates!

Writer Charles Soule continues the epic storyline event of Crimson Dawn’s resurgence with Crimson Reign #2! While this series is at a much lower scale than War of the Bounty Hunters in terms of being an event, it’s still an important story that affects the entire galaxy during this time period. Though, being smaller scale in terms of events and tie-ins, it feels more like an issue that’s there to fill in some gaps and connect to other current runs, as opposed to much grander and important story, but it’s still a fun issue. He gives us some great insight into what makes Ochi and Deathstick tick as well as how intelligent Qi’ra is and how intricate her planning and manipulation can be. It’s a fun light issue that still offers some solid substance to the overall Star Wars universe.

The visual arts team for Crimson Reign #2 consists of artist Steve Cummings, inker Victor Olazaba, colorist GURU-eFX, and letterer VC’s Travis Lanham. Together they have made a super fun issue to read! GURU-eFX’s colors are definitely the highlight of the issue, really elevating the already fantastic artwork to even higher levels of beauty. The mass amounts of characters really help not only the story, but also show off the incredible skill of everyone involved as they bring great detail to the many unique individuals that litter the pages of this issue.

The main cover for Crimson Reign #2 was done by Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Gho and is an absolute masterpiece that depicts Deathstick and Ochi of Bestoon taking on the entire force of Emperor Palpatine’s red robed Royal Guard! There’s a massive amount of variant covers for this issue. We have Ario Anindito and Edgar Delgado (Connecting variant), Clayton Crain (Enemies of Dawn variant), Valerio Giangiordano and Arif Prianto (Warriors of Dawn variant), Rahzzah (Knights of Ren variant), David Lopez (Sabacc Card variant), and Khoi Pham and Lee Loughridge (Syndicate variant). The entire crew of artists have done a spectacular job with every single variant cover, but for me, the coolest cover has to be Rahzzah’s Knights of Ren variant. The reds and blacks of the piece are just so deep and intense and stunning.

Crimson Reign #2 continues Qi’ra’s attack on the underworld and Palpatine as she sends out her assassins to put more of her plans in motion. It’s a lighter read than expected, but still full of fun moments and lots of insight into a few of these fascinating characters. So jump on your swoop bike and zoom down to your local comic shop to pick up the issue today!