Soren and Steel must help Ka before she will help them find Owen. Owen has some of his own issues to work through in hell. But who is behind all their troubles? Find out in Barbaric: Hell to Pay #2 from Vault Comics!

BARBARIC: HELL TO PAY #2

Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Nathan Gooden
Colorist: Addison Duke
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Adrian F. Wassel
Publisher: Vault Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 1, 2023

Previously in Barbaric: Hell to Pay: Owen has gone to Hell, and Axe is now in Soren’s hands. Soren and Steel help someone in need by killing a horde of reptilian monsters. Before he can manipulate them into killing more monsters for him, Soren makes him tell them where the Orcs are. She wants to find Gladius, but before she can interrogate the Orc leader, he is slain by an army of Irikians. Their Captain takes Soren and Steel into custody and Axe seems to recognize her. She wants to know where Soren got Axe. Axe confesses to Soren that she is an old girlfriend of Owen’s, and they can trust her. In fact, she may be able to help them. In Hell, Owen is being tortured until an old friend comes in riding on a dragon.

NEW ENEMIES TO BATTLE

Barbaric: Hell to Pay #2 opens in Hell as the leader of an army gives a rousing speech to his warriors before their battle with…the Frog people. Owen has never seen Frog people before. Apparently, when they die, they all go to Hell. The battle begins. Owen gleefully kills a Frog, who gasps in horror and tells him they aren’t supposed to do killing blows. Owen is ready to apologize for his mistake, when the Frog admits to messing with him and severing his arm. Then he sees Deadheart surrounded and immediately changes his focus. He frees an enormous monster, only to learn that he actually was not supposed to do that.

Soren and Steel, along with Ka, slog through the mountains. Axe keeps up an incessant commentary on how boring it is that they are marching in silence. Steel scents some blood near the path, fresh blood. But he also smells something more noxious. They find a heap of bodies as well as a band of large creatures like nothing any of them has ever seen before. Axe decides that they don’t look all that tasty, and suggests that Soren work her magic. Instead, she swings him into one of the creatures. Its blood is rancid and burning to him, and both he and Soren feel something strange. Soren does use magic to kill the creatures, and it also knocks her down. The creatures, whatever they are, are powered by magic, and she feels something familiar about it. Axe starts hallucinating.

After a hard day’s battle in Hell, everyone retires to a tavern for some drinking. Deadheart introduces Owen to the leader of the Frog people, Frogly. Deadheart also wonders why he went berserk trying to save her. Does he actually feel guilty about her death? He stomps outside. Deadheart follows and orders him, as his clan leader, to come walk with her. She tells him that people live and die. She knows the choice she made led to her death. She is okay with it, and he needs to get over it. He has been looking for a past that is past, when he has a new life. And she thinks she can help him return to it.

The Black Sea in Hell is a place almost everyone avoids. Someone on the other side of it has kidnapped an elemental. And that someone, Sooku-Kemp, a known enemy of Owen’s, may be using it as bait to lure the barbarian to him. Owen has gotten used to not being able to die, but if he dies on the other side of this sea, he will never come back. He is still willing to go, and Deadheart and Frogly insist on going with him.

Meanwhile, Ka, carrying Axe, takes Soren and Steel to Grand Duke Holtzker’s castle as prisoners. It gets them through the gate. The plan is to kill the Grand Duke and try to get back out, but Soren is suddenly distracted. She senses the magic she felt in the woods, the same magic behind the weird creatures…

BLOODY FIGHTS AND FEARSOME MONSTERS

The opening of Barbaric: Hell to Pay #2 is so dramatic and so funny. An army of Hell gathers around their leader, and it is a fierce-looking group of warriors who ended up here. They are all roiled up to kill the Frog people – who certainly are Frog people. They are green. They have an amphibious look to them. Their mouths are broad in a way that looks like a smile on them. And they wear coats and hats reminiscent of 18th-century redcoats. They do not look like something that routinely terrorizes Hell. And when we meet Frogly later, it compounds the delightful goofiness.

During the mountain trek, when Soren first sees the creatures who have disemboweled a heap of Orcs, she appears taken aback. We know she has seen plenty of unusual stuff, so we already know this is something different. I do like the design of these unworldly creatures. They have a reptilian look to them, but they also walk upright. Their heads do not look like any typical reptile. They are flat and broad. They do not look like they have obvious eyes, but they do have broad, toothy mouths. They have a distinct pack hunter look to them. There is such creativity in the art which gives the world an interesting flavor.

BOTTOM LINE: OH, THE COMPLICATIONS

In Barbaric: Hell to Pay #2, even though Axe is now in Soren’s hands, he is still bloodthirsty and obnoxious. Owen is not gone, but getting him back may be even more difficult than expected. Fortunately, a stubborn group of characters is heading for him.

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