Published by: IDW Publishing
Released on: May 7, 2014
Writer: Brian Ash, Yassir Lester
Artist: Marcelo Ferreria
Cover: Eric Battle
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After being shunned by The Community and author Alex Haley, due to Black Dynamite's intense blackness, Dynamite somehow ends up in the bowels of Guantanamo Bay, all dreadlocked and bearded. A mysterious group of militants appear and remove him from his restraints. After a haircut and a shave, he meets the person who got him out of the dark cell he was in…that person is “The Manâ€. That's right the actual Man. The one who runs the show.
The Man has a proposition for Black Dynamite. The Man will give him wealth and power in exchange for Dynamite's allegiance in a power struggle war being waged. He doesn't know Black Dynamite as well as he thinks he does, and The Man gets a serious lesson from he who is blacker than the ace of spades. But where there's one side of a war, there's got to be another side, and that other side has also has a serious interest in bringing Black Dynamite to rally to their cause. He must make a decision, and in the end he gets a handful. Two handfuls, actually.
Issue #2 was so much better than the first one, in the story and art departments (and dig that cover). Issue #1 seemed little more than maybe a reminder of who Black Dynamite is, and felt kind of empty. The story has taken an interesting turn in issue #2 and the pencils of Marcelo Ferreria make the book far more enjoyable than the style of the artist in the first issue, Ron Wimberly. It just seems to fit better and makes the comic less of a cartoon and more of an action book. The re-hashed jokes in the first issue are all but gone in the second and that is a good thing. The creators seem to be going for more of a story arc starting with this issue and this could become a really fun book. More fun than it already is. People not into the first issue should give this title another chance. It feels more like it's going the commando route rather than the street gang avenue, and that is a breath of fresh air compared to the first installment. Let's hope the book keeps on this path. This could get really good.