Grass Kings #2 Review (Boom)

Written by: Matt Kindt
Illustrated by: Tyler Jenkins
Lettered by: Jim Campbell
Cover by: Tyler Jenkins
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 12, 2017

Green Grass & High

The first issue did an outstanding job of luring me into the world and I was ecstatic to delve back into these characters with the brand new issue. The cliffhanger leads you to believe all things don’t seem so bad for Robert, the sheriff of Grass Kingdom. Only time will tell what this all means for our cast of characters. Let’s find out what everyone is up to at the moment. 

So what seemed to be Robert’s long lost daughter rising from the water, only turns out to be an unfamiliar face in the Grass Kingdom. He takes the woman in to provide her a bed, food, and shelter. The two don’t exchange many words as Robert continuously carries a conversation to what seems like himself. Robert starts to tell the tired woman about his daughter, we see how it affected both his ex-wife, him and the fallout it caused. While the woman seems to be noncoherent as Robert rambles on, we see a panel that she’s, in fact, taking all this in. Tyler Jenkins’s art really helps portray the intensity of the emotions happening in this backstory.

Back in Cargill, the Sheriff Hubert is, in fact, looking for the woman who has appeared at Robert’s home. He’s decided to send in one of his henchmen, Big Dan to provoke the Grass Kingdom to retaliate allowing them to bring the Grass Kingdom to an end and capture the unknown woman. Leaving the sheriff’s office, Big Dan doesn’t exchange many words with Lo as he carries the conversation. But one thing we do know is that Big Dan has the armory to start a war.

Returning to the Grass Kingdom, we start to learn most people of the town are starting to question Robert’s leadership. The entire kingdom understands since Robert losing his daughter, he’s lost his way. Bruce, on the other hand, doesn’t see things the same way and still has faith his brother is under control.

Ashur and Pinball are hanging out in Ashur’s treehouse boat listening to Bruce Springsteen and discussing classic cinema. Pinball mentions to Ashur how he’s getting bored being able to not experience modern day attractions. While Ashur is content in their secluded town. Now we have a real sense of where in time this is all taking place. As Pinball leaves Ashur’s he encounters Big Dan and things don’t go so well for Pinball. That’s where we end the issue.

Now that we’ve been introduced to the characters in the last issue. We can move forward with the main plot and learn more of Sheriff Hubert’s motivations. We’re left wondering what the mysterious women role in all this is. Matt Kindt does a wonderful job of showing us the turmoil Robert has gone through since losing his daughter and the state of mind he's currently in. I was bummed to see things may not turn out so well for Pinball. He was the one character with motivations to have a life outside of Grass Kingdom.

Tyler Jenkins’s art continues to be great and works as if you’re watching a tv show play out using beautiful illustrations.

Bits and Pieces:

Sheriff Cubert of Cargill has decided to stir things up in the Grass Kingdom. We learn more of the pain Robert went through after losing his daughter. With this issue, we now have a sense of the decade this series takes place in. The cliffhanger will leave you shaken up and excited to see the future of Grass Kingdom. There’s the perfect blend of crime and mystery to keep me around to see how the Grass Kingdom reacts to this invasion.

8.5/10