What’s a modern day Robin Hood gonna do when after a twenty-year retirement, he realizes he’s spent all the cash and the same one percenters are still in charge? Find out in Dead Rabbit #2.

DEAD RABBIT #2

Writer:  Gerry Duggan
Artist: John McCrea
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Will Dennis
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: November 7th, 2018
Price: $3.99

Previously in Dead Rabbit: Martin Dobbs, aka the Dead Rabbit, spent his youth making a name for himself as an audacious thief and bank robber, taking down the rich and powerful.  Having enjoyed a quiet retirement, he now faces mounting medical bills to treat his wife’s illness.  After wrestling with the idea of returning to a life of crime, Dobbs gives in and slips the mask back on.  He soon discovers that not only have times changed, but also the Mafia is keen on an explanation with what he did with their millions of dollars…

HE’S TOO OLD FOR THIS CR#P, BUT HE’S GONNA DO IT ANYWAY

Dead Rabbit #2 is a lot of fun.  Martin Dobbs made a name for himself twenty years ago as the Dead Rabbit, an audacious masked robber never caught despite the risks he took.  His identity unsuspected, he disappeared back into suburban life, thinking the loot meant he would never have to don the mask again.  Sadly, with the medical bills from his wife’s illness eating through his ill-gotten gains, Dobbs has no choice but to go back to his old life of crime.  After re-emerging in the previous issue, Dobbs is faced with a huge medical bill and plans a bank heist to cover the cost.

PAPA DON’T PREACH

From my vantage point far away in Australia, I can only look on and shake my head in horrified wonder at the broken American health system.  I hear and read stories about people waiting until the last possible moment to visit the hospital because of the costs involved – and then dying because they waited too long.  Dead Rabbit #2 taps a little into that situation, offering an insight, without layering on any political comment, into a world where people lose their homes to cover their doctor’s bills.  Don’t worry – the Dead Rabbit #2 doesn’t preach.  Writer Gerry Duggan lays out the situation Dobbs finds himself in, and naturally, with his skillset, the only way to pay is to make someone else pay for him.  Duggan makes Dobbs’ anguish at his wife’s illness and the choice forced on him very real and relevant

After the intriguing opening issue, Dead Rabbit #2 settles down to tell a good, solid story.  Recruiting his old driver, ‘Wheels’, Dobbs storms a bank.  Wheels, however, isn’t the man he once was.  Fortifying himself from a bottle of vodka, Wheels promptly falls asleep behind the wheel while waiting, leaving Dobbs to do the driving himself.  A traffic accident forces Dobbs to drop Wheels off at a hospital, the same hospital treating his wife.  Comforted by the belief that Wheels won’t talk to the police, Dobbs is unaware his old friend is about to be quizzed by members of the local mafia, eager to know who it was stole their three million dollars.

John McCrea’s art is a solid accompaniment to the story.  He brings a realistic sensibility to the story, which fits the suburban setting.  There’s nothing flowery or overt about the art, just solid line work and well realized characters.  Some of his best work is reserved for scenes within the bank, where his depiction of Dobbs in a couple of splash pages demonstrates the character’s domination of the bank during the robbery.  Less believable is the car accident which sees a drunken Wheels smash through a windshield into the side of a train, though that’s more the fault of the writer than McCrea.

BOTTOM LINE – DOESN’T SET THE WORLD ON FIRE, BUT GIVES A WARM GLOW

It’s evident that Duggan has set out to comment on an important aspect of American life through the prism of a man desperate to save his wife’s life.  He doesn’t preach, but lays out why a man who is living a comfortable life might be pushed to do what he does, against his best interests.  More than that, Dead Rabbit #2 is a solid story about a skilled bank robber who never quite lost the itch, and even if he is using his wife’s illness as an excuse to get back in the saddle, he’s putting the money to a good cause.  But, as the warnings say, don’t try this at home, kids.