The Horseman #2 Is Finally Here, but Am I Still Here For It?

It’s been a little while since I had some new Rippaverse comics to review, but a few weeks ago I finally received a very, very delayed order of a few comics including The Horseman #2. Before I get into my thoughts on Hector Caballero’s newest misadventure, I wanted to talk about something surrounding Rippaverse Comics.

First and foremost, I do like and support Rippaverse. I have since the beginning, and I firmly believe that what they put out is pretty solid. Unfortunately, I’m noticing a very large problem starting to pop up: volume. A few months ago, Rippaverse stopped doing campaigns for their upcoming comics. Instead, they switched over to a pre-order system where you can place a pre-order for upcoming comics. As of right now, there are currently 19 pre-orders available. Yes, 19. When compared with the current catalogue of available comics, excluding RippaZine, I believe there are 18. There are currently more pre-orders available than book in the current catalogue of already released comics. As a consumer, this is unsustainable. Every single week, it seems like two to three new pre-orders are dropping. And it doesn’t help that prices haven’t changed. If you want a variant cover, that’s $30 a pop, unless you get the foil and embossed one that’s $50. Mass print cover is $18 or $19, which is slightly better, but that’s still an insane commitment for long-time fans and supporters. And to add insult to injury, shipping prices are genuinely atrocious, so if you order a single book, it’s going to be a $30 purchase bare minimum. One of my favorite parts about the Rippaverse was how you could stay up to date with everything happening and collect all of the comics as they came out. That is no longer tenable, at least for me. I want to support this company, I really do, but I cannot afford to be placing $60-$90 orders every single week. It’s ridiculous. And lastly, I genuinely hate the FOMO they’ve attached to this new practice. They advertise that every single comic comes with a free character card in the first few orders. At first it was the first 1000 orders, but then they reduced it to 500. As someone who was collecting the Dokumaan cards, I assume that this is how you get new ones. But it also hasn’t been clarified or described very well what these cards actually are. Regardless, I despise that decision because it feels manipulative towards the dedicated fans. Especially because most of the time, not all of the cover arts have actually been revealed. Why? Why can I buy something when I don’t know what it looks like? And why are the release dates so sporadic? Some pre-orders release in the summer. Others release in October. Why I could pre-order an October release back in the beginning of March doesn’t make any sense to me. This has been a long and tangential rant, but I think it was important to say, especially because it means that my Rippaverse reviews will likely begin slowing down soon. Sure, I’m still waiting on a bunch of comics, but once I get them, I’m not expecting to pick any more up for a while. Now onto The Horseman #2.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The Horseman #2 picks up immediately where #1 left off. Hector continues to do jobs for Cal Buxton, taking out gang infrastructure and sowing discontent amongst criminal factions. That’s most of what happens in this comic. A new power player name Duele is introduced talking to the imprisoned Calhoun and trying to take over his territory. This is definitely setting stuff up for later, but that’s about it. During one raid, Hector battles an except and gets his ribs broken. He escapes, but the damage is done. He fakes a car crash and wakes up in the hospital. His sister is upset with him, suspecting he’s been leading a double life again. The issue ends with Buxton calling Hector and revealing that all the work the Horseman did created a power vacuum amongst criminals that Buxton could now fill, so the Horseman was no longer needed and could do whatever he wanted. And since the Horseman operated outside of the law, now that Buxton knows exactly who he is, Hector wouldn’t dare go to any authorities lest it blow up on him, or his family.

This was a pretty simple issue in terms of plot and set-up. The Buxton betrayal didn’t come as a surprise or anything. He’s always been a very shady figure with pretty obvious ulterior motives, but I wasn’t expecting him to drop his mask this early on. I also did find it interesting how he betrayed Hector. Sure, Buxton used him to do his dirty work, but in the end, Buxton doesn’t try to kill Hector. I do find that fairly refreshing in these kinds of stories of betrayal. Something else I really liked about the story was how Hector actually gets injured. He’s just a man, albeit a well-trained one, so whenever he encounters excepts, they’re genuinely a challenge. As a result, he may win, but he does suffer injuries. It’s always refreshing seeing injuries that matter.

Turning to the artwork, I think it ranges in quality a lot in this issue. A lot of the art, especially the close-ups and action scenes, are good. The Horseman always looks great in action. Some of the side characters, however, do not. I noticed that a lot of the character when drawn from a distance looked uncanny or ridiculous. The most noteworthy example being when Hector’s sister and nephew visit him in the hospital and his nephew looks like a badly rendered Bobby from King of the Hill. Another area where the artwork took me out was in the scene with Calhoun. For some reason, he has a lot of spit in his mouth, and it just doesn’t look good. It almost looks like he has two connected teeth a few times. Close-up faces were usually a toss up between fine and uncanny.

SPOILERS END

I did like The Horseman #2. It was definitely more of a set-up volume with minimal, but necessary, plot progression. It may seem like not a whole lot happened, but I expect #3 will have a lot going on in it. Is The Horseman #2 worth your time and money? If you like the character and want to keep up with Hector’s adventures, then yes, definitely. But if you’re a more casual fan, I don’t know. I will admit that The Horseman #2 almost made me want to walk back a little on my decisions discussed above and place some more pre-orders for the comics I decided to skip; keyword here being “almost.”