Well we’re back with big fun Batman and also with Grant Morrison. The first issue of Incorporated gave us a lot of fun with Lord Death Man, Bruce and Selina sexing it up, and overall just a lot of punches being thrown. Like with any new series though sometimes a second issue can show a series it’s true colors. Or sometimes it can hit a huge snag from before.

This issue sorta hits on both points as this was a real big letdown for me. Yes, there is a lot of big action involved with this issue. Whether it’s Selina fighting an octopus, Lord Death Man doing insane things (really insane things), or Batman just kicking some ass; you get a lot of action in a small dose. But the pacing of the story went really fast for my liking. It really feels like Morrison had to condense two issues worth of plot into one. We go from beat to beat with no pause and I really don’t know much about Mr. Unknown now then I did before. Plus the way they deal with Lord Death Man didn’t seem to make much sense and his new healing powers also are not explained. I just don’t understand way this issue was so condensed to get to the ending. Why couldn’t this have been a three issue arc?

Yanick Paquette’s art with Micel Lacombe’s inks really aren’t meshing well with me still. What’s on the page isn’t bad, per say, but it’s not wowing me either. There are also some panels that don’t seem to make much sense in terms of layout or flow. Also, the inks are way too heavy and sometimes the pages look too muddy. What is there, again, had some great things from time to time. Selina dealing with the octopus or Lord Death Man driving through an apartment looks great. But with two issues in I really don’t think this is the right art team for this book.

With the first story under its belt, I have no idea what to think of this series. The first issue was a lot of fun but with this issue it all crawls to a halt for me. There are some bright spots in this issue, so again I’m not saying this is a terrible issue. But I hope with the next issue we get some better sense of pacing and importance to the overal series. That, and Paquette/Lacombe really need to bring their ‘A’ game for the third issue as well.