Written by: Rick Remender
Art by: Sean Murphy
Published by: Image
After the cold open that was the debut issue of Tokyo Ghost, Remender and Murphy use the second issue to roll back the pace, and really introduce the readers to the characters and the world of Tokyo Ghost. The slower pace is welcome, especially considering how exhilarating the debut issue was. The juxtaposition between the two issues is a nice touch – the fact that they’re almost polar opposites makes this issue more impactful, and the first more impactful retrospectively. Really, it’s just nice to get to know Debbie and Ted better.
A good chunk of this issue consists of flashbacks to when the two first met, and their time together before Ted became Constable Led Dent. These scenes are the standouts in this issue – heartwarming, but overshadowed by the events that are to come. Honestly, I would love to have spent more time in the past, getting to know the two characters even better, rather than just getting an overview. That’s not necessarily a critique – if anything, it’s a testament to how well these sequences are written. They also help to ground the series a little bit more. Debbie was what held the first issue together, but she did need more fleshing out, which she gets here. The thing is, she isn’t the only character that ground the series – surprisingly, Ted seems to fill this role as much as she does, especially in the flashback sequences.
In addition to writing strong strong characters, Remender’s social commentary is well executed and, frankly, pretty emotional. While Tokyo Ghost is an action packed love story on the surface, it’s really a commentary on why the human race is worth saving. The world building is immensely important to this particular message. Remender and Murphy use the world that we live in as a basis, and take it to an extreme, illustrating the consequences not only of our reliance on technology, but also of human decadence, greed, and generally being out of touch with what makes us human. Debbie (and Ted, at least in the flashbacks) is a manifestation of the characteristics that make humanity worth fighting for, and the contrast between her and the world that she lives in is striking.
After spending so much time raving about the writing, it’s only appropriate that I take some time and rave about how excellent the art is. At this point, Sean Murphy is a household name in the comic reading community, so most, if not all, readers know how exceptional his work is. In addition to his aesthetic just being visually pleasing, it fits the tone of Tokyo Ghost quite well, which is perhaps more important. His visual story telling – from facial expressions and body language to the environment that the characters inhabit – does as much as Remender’s script in terms of the development of plot, characters, themes, and the world.
