When I reviewed the first season of District 14 back in February, I heaped a lot of praise upon it. I loved the world that writer Pierre Gabus and artist Romuald Reutimann had created and the rich cast of characters they populated it with. As such, I was of course eager to read the second season of the comic, to see if it would live up to the standards set by its predecessor.
For those of you who haven't read my review of season 1, a brief introduction might be necessary: District 14 (original title: Cité 14) is a French comic which takes place in the eponymous district; a place populated by regular humans, anthropomorphic animals, aliens and even a superhero. The first season introduced us to this setting through the eyes of newly arrived immigrant, Michael Elizondo, a pachyderm who had left his homeland, due to circumstances which were revealed at the end of the season. Upon his arrival in District 14, Michael almost immediately ended up saving the life of journalistic beaver, Hector McKeagh, leading to the two striking a partnership, working as investigative reporters for one of the district's newspapers.
Season 2 begins where its predecessor ended; Michael's sickness has deformed him and causing him to grow increasingly violent. He has fallen into the thrall of a father-son team of monkeys, who knows about his past and forces him to steal for them in order to receive the leaves that can be used to slow down the progress of the sickness. At the same time, Hector, sets out to make peace with his past; first by investigating the rumors of contaminated water in the Covington Neighborhood, the part of the district where most of its alien inhabitants live, and second of all to spring Cloxm, one of the aliens' political leaders and the person Hector's dead wife, Belinda, left him for, out of prison.
As was the case with the first season, season 2 of District 14 sees Gabus juggling several plot-lines of varying importance and it it's a testament to his skill as a storyteller that he constantly kept me invested in what would happen next, no matter whether the focus was on Michael, Hector or any other character.
Speaking of characters, all the ones introduced in season 1 are back for this round (except for those who died during the course of that season's events) and several of the old characters, who only had walk-on roles in the first season, get fleshed out in this one. New characters are also introduced, among the more interesting are Bill and Joe, a couple of old-timers, who set out to avenge the death of an old friend (said friend was mentioned briefly in the first season) at the hands of the most powerful man in the city. Another memorable new introduction is the affably evil, bunny hit-man, Walter Lipoda.
As for Reutimann's artwork, I can't think of much to write about it. It continues to be very appealing to look at, and suits the overall tone of the comic very well, in my opinion.
Do I have anything negative to say about District 14's second season? Well, maybe there's the fact that at it ends with several plot-threads still left hanging. That said, I enjoyed my second visit to the District immensely and am looking forward to the upcoming third season.
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