More of Miss Truesdale’s past life comes to light, whether or not she can handle it remains to be seen.  Your Major Spoilers review of Miss Truesdale and The Fall of Hyperborea #2, awaits!

MISS TRUESDALE AND THE FALL OF HYPERBOREA #2

Writer: Mike Mignola
Artist: Jesse Lonergan
Colorist: Jesse Lonergan
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editor: Katii O’Brien
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date:  June 14th, 2023

Previously in Miss Truesdale and The Fall of Hyperborea: After discovering a shocking truth connecting her to a gladiator from Ancient Hyperborea, the timid Victorian Miss Truesdale is forced to confront the horrifying evils and mysteries that lurk in what once felt like ancient history.

ALONE IN THE DARK

Miss Truesdale and The Fall of Hyperborea #2 opens with the titular character locked in her room in London.  The caretakers attempt to persuade her to come out or at least eat, but she remains fixated on her thoughts, particularly of her recent trip to Paris.  Things then flashback to her time in Paris, where she once again envisions a past life.  There her gladiator self is sitting in darkness before she is ushered out and led to a pit with a cage hanging over it.  There her friend is trapped.  Before she can do anything a pillar of fire engulfs the cage and a being made of blue flame appears.  She flees the room and makes it outside.  There she finds herself face to face with a trio of undead warriors she must battle with.  We’re then given an oratory history of the arrival of the first angels and the source of the Right Hand of Doom.

SAYS A LOT WITH LITTLE

The first half of Miss Truesdale and The Fall of Hyperborea #2 is a remarkable example of how body language and selective dialog can work together to convey emotion without the benefit of motion or sound.  In the first 10 pages, feelings like fear, anger, tiredness, acceptance,  and determination are all on display without a single person saying something like “I’m so angry” or “You look afraid”, which gives this part of the comic a nice natural feel to it.  The events, as fantastical as they are, feel like they are occurring how they would in a real universe. The second half of the book does get a bit more wordy, but it at least has a purpose. How the telling of Anum fits into the plot isn’t clear yet, but it does come off a bit like an info-dump that’s being disguised as something happening in-world, which is fine in most situations, but here it does feel a bit out of place and doesn’t do much for the flow of the issue.  Another thing that isn’t clear is if the final panel is designed to be a cliffhanger or not, but because it shows a character, not all that different than when we last saw them, it’s hard to tell exactly what is trying to be said here.

KEEPING UP THE LOOK

This issue is not drawn by Mike Mignola, but it does manage to keep up the same look as his work on BRPD and other Hellboy-related projects. Not to say that it’s a carbon copy of course, Jesse Lonergan brings their own flair to the book that allows it to do most of the great emoting that was mentioned above.  What’s fascinating about this is that the art here isn’t what most people would call detailed, but it’s effective in how it utilizes well-known visual clues, then emphasizes them, in order to convey the emotion, leaving everything else to fill in space.  The action scenes deserve some praise as well.  Once again, without filling each panel with a ton of lines, Lonergan keeps things fluid and simple, not trying to convey very complicated motions.  This keeps things discernable and easy to follow from one action to the next.

Bottom Line:  A Couple Hiccups But Thoroughly Enjoyable

Miss Truesdale and The Fall of Hyperborea #2 is a beautifully drawn and colored, character-driven chapter of this story that features some good action and some decent background information for those who might be lacking in lore knowledge.  Things get a little shaky as the balance between the info dump and the plot progression doesn’t equal out.  4 out of 5 stars.

---

Dear Spoilerite,

At Major Spoilers, we strive to create original content that you find interesting and entertaining. Producing, writing, recording, editing, and researching requires significant resources. We pay writers, podcast hosts, and other staff members who work tirelessly to provide you with insights into the comic book, gaming, and pop culture industries. Help us keep MajorSpoilers.com strong. Become a Patron (and our superhero) today.