Hacktivist 2

Hacktivist Issue 2 Review

Writers:

Collin Kelly

Jack Lanzing

Alyssa Milano

Artists:

Ian Herring

Marcus To

Published by:

To say I wasn’t overly happy with issue 1 was an understatement; an ode to the power of the internet, it had its heart in the right place but it fumbled the implementation at almost every step. Issue 2 goes some way towards implementing changes that alleviate these problems.

For one, things start to unravel. The announcement of the offer made to them last issue by a US Government drives a firm wedge between our two protagonists Nate and Ed. What was a playful,
occasionally bitter bromance is now shattered, as Nate takes the agencies offer and pulls off a successful mission. Ed just sulks in his office listening to Fight the Power and plotting.

This leads to some payoff to the scene of Ed drawing circles on the windows from last issue. It turns out, he’s so smart and focused on looking for patterns that he’s found a way to implement that on macro (the much vaulted computer hardware they have) and the micro scale, as he plans his escape from a company he no longer trusts using patterns in people and events he has observed.

Naturally, he does all this whilst causing as much damage as possible; quite why he just doesn’t walk out the door of the office building he owns and disappear discreetly doesn’t occur to him I
guess. I’m guessing the writer wanted to make their message of ‘F@%* Big Government- Go Big Business our Saviours’ just a little more obvious after hitting you over the head with it for an issue and a bit.

One thing I do have to compliment, is how during those pages, there’s a sense of dynamic flow and energy that just isn’t in the rest of the issue. Perhaps it’s a case of tune in for the action, but just try to phase out the message?

In the end, I did enjoy this issue more. There are a lot of things happening in this issue as it heads towards the half way point of the mini series. It just seems very confused about what its trying to say, with no real exploration of the nuances of the situation. I get that mini series have to streamline themselves a bit due to the limited pages they are allowed, but the writer has spent two issues focusing on everything but the ‘activist’ part of Hacktivist.

Perhaps the next two issues will bring a reversal of fortunes. But following the message lain down by this comic, William Gibson’s Neuromancer is a world to aspire to, rather than horrible nightmare.

You can buy Hacktivist #2 from Comixology, or all good comic book stores.

Reece Morris-Jones knows you can’t trust the system. Help him overthrow something with hashtags and humour @ReecemJones

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.