Naomi is published by DC Comics under their Wonder Comics imprint. It is written by Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker with art by Jamal Campbell.
It’s only issue #2, but every time I see Naomi’s parents, I just think of the Boggs parents from Edward Scissorhands. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe other readers will think that’s an odd correlation to draw, but there’s just something about them. They just have that over the top, stereotypical mom and dad feel. You know, that whole “dad is going to go give someone a piece of his mind for upsetting his daughter” but then mom is all sweet like “no, dear, it’s alright, just calm down”. Like, I’ve seen this dynamic a million times. And it feels so fake. Basically what I’m getting at is I think her parents are fake. I think they’re real people, but I think her life has been fabricated to an extent. Maybe it’s to protect her, maybe it’s to protect the world. Maybe it’s both. Either way, it’s fishy as hell.
At this point, a local mechanic called Dee let it slip that something crazy like the Superman fight happened seventeen years ago on March 14th, which is the day Naomi was adopted. Which is super ominous as is, let alone when the ridiculously large and daunting town mechanic says it with a touch of sadness. And then proceeds to throw (literally) Naomi out of his shop and then ride away on his motorcycle. It’s always amusing to watch an oversized, muscular human, run away from a significantly smaller and less intimidating one.
I don’t think I said this in my review of issue #1, and even if I did, I’ll say it again, I love the way Jamal Campbell draws expressions and body language. For instance, there’s a scene where Naomi is at dinner with her parents, you can see her face and expressions, but from her parents you only see their arms, hands, and speech bubbles. Yet during this scene I could tell exactly how all three of them were feeling and talking despite the lack of faces of her parents and her subtle body movements.
While we still lack a lot of information on the mystery surrounding Naomi, Bendis and Walker have set us up nicely in this issue to hopefully get some answers. And we know at least one thing, that Dee is connected to Naomi somehow, and that he has a very interesting photo that’s pretty telling all on its own.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.8 / 10
This was a good issue, but it felt like a lot more could have happened. I know things have to progress at a gradual pace, we can’t just be given answers, but we were given virtually nothing, which was a little disappointing. Still, that final scene was intense and I can’t wait to read when issue #3 picks it back up.
Make sure you pick up Naomi #2 from your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
