Only the Savage Are Left #2
Writer: Zack Kaplan
Artist: Stefano Raffaele
Colorist: Diego Rocha
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster."
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Beasts Within
Only the Savage Are Left #2 picks up moments after issue #1 ended. Young Ryder—pacifist, idealist, some would say completely unequipped to survive in a world full of literal monsters—has set out on a quest to find his missing lady love Oaklynn. Almost immediately, he's set upon by Infected and nearly killed. His mysterious, monstrous savior turns out to be a man named Fionn—Oaklynn's father.
Assuming they are both infected, Fionn burns the bodies of the attackers so that he and Ryder can inhale the smoke. They are approached by an older woman and a very infected young woman who ask if they can share in the smoke. The men are then flanked by another woman who has a gun but claims to be friendly. Ryder is willing to share, but Fionn quickly—and violently—dispatches all three of the women.
Elsewhere, Oaklynn and another young woman have been taken captive by a group of marauders. The two women are given a single knife and told that whoever survives lives through the week.
Throughout the issue, we see flashbacks to earlier, happier times. Even then, it's clear who wears the pants in Ryder and Oaklynn's relationship—it's her, and they're camo. Every time the moment calls for some kind of action, Ryder freezes or chickens out. Give him credit, he's very consistent.
As Ryder and Fionn try to balance their different views of the world and work together, they find where Oaklynn is being held, but encounter some complications...
Hard Choices
This is a very good, albeit very heavy, comic book.
Right from the start, we get the juxtaposition of the major conflict for this series—Ryder's worldview versus how the world actually is. In the first panel, we see a bumper sticker that says "Human + Kind - be both." In the second panel, we see the state of the world around that vehicle. The two things don't seem very complementary to each other.
If you've ever had a big decision to make but couldn't, or needed to make some kind of decisive action but didn't know what to decide, then you'll be able to relate somewhat to Ryder. The difference is, most of us only experience that kind of indeciveness or inaction once in a while. For him, it's every decision for basically his entire life. That's no way to live under normal circumstances, let alone a world where people turn to monsters and you have to inhale the smoke of their burnt corpses for a cure.
Fionn is both the visual and character counterpoint to Ryder. Not only is he willing to make the difficult choices, which for him are way too easy, but he's already been infected multiple times in the past so he no longer appears fully human. The clawed hand and other visual affectations give him a much more eerie and menacing look than he would if he was just a rough-looking human. So even when he and Ryder aren't debating their different philosophies, you can visually see that he is clearly not the same as our hero.
As for Oaklynn, she appears to be very much her father's daughter. When we first see her, she's bound and gagged along with another young woman. They're given a knife and told only one can survive. When next we see Oaklynn, she is walking free and absolutely covered in blood. So I guess she didn't have a hard time with that particular choice. The question is, when (if?) Ryder and Fionn find her, will there be anything human left to save? Can she still be to Ryder what he remembers her being, and vice versa? There's a lot of emotional states behind this story, not just the physical ones.
The Things We Become
Zack Kaplan does a terrific job taking the setting established in issue #1 and really diving into the story of Ryder this issue. Through his travels and interactions with Fionn, we get a clear view of just who he is and what he stands for. At the end of the day, he wants to be a good person who does the right thing—it's just that sometimes that doesn't go as well as it should. The story is paced well, moving from one scene to the next without dwelling too much on the less impactful moments. He ends the issue on a cliffhanger that I don't want to spoil here, just know that it hugely raises the stakes for both Ryder and Oaklynn and I can't wait to see where he takes things.
The art by Stefano Raffaele is incredibly detailed and works remarkably well for the story being told. His characters are realistic and full of detail, while the more monstrous denizens are suitably creepy and horrifying. The horde of infected children hit me particularly hard—I have a thing with children in peril in these types of stories, and I was wholly unprepared for that particular moment in this issue.
Diego Rocha's colors do a phenomenal job of giving the world a dirty, washed-out tone without making it bland and drab. It's not easy to give the whole world a bit of a brown filter, used to show how dark and desiccated the world itself is, and not have someone mock it for "not using the full color palette enough." I think he does great work here, giving the world depth and impact. The infected people are bizarre and horrifying, but never so much that you can't look at them. That is a testament to both the art and the coloring, that the designs are so effective overall.
Human + Kind
Only the Savage Are Left #2 is a fantastic comic book that tells a story of one young man trying to remain true to himself in a world full of monsters, lest he become one himself. If you like your comics with strong characters, a realistic young relationship, impressive worldbuilding, and relatable moral dilemmas, this is a book to watch out for.