Saviour #2

Feb 1990. Cover price £1.
28 pages. B&W contents.
Trident Comics.

Edited by Martin Skidmore.

Cover by Daniel Vallely.

Contents:

 2 Britain's Bounciest Letters readers' mail; illustration by Nigel Kitching. / Credits / Indicia

 3 Saviour Shakespeare's Sister w: Mark Millar; a: Nigel Kitching.

27 Britain's Bounciest Letters cont..

Another fine cover, with a wonderfully apocalyptic tone to the artwork. The title's logo is, sadly, stretched and difficult to read clearly against the red background, sitting ill at ease in the overall design. On the bright side, it is a joy to find a letters column in this issue, even if it is awkwardly positioned in the inside cover, necessitating flipping past the pages to continue reading. Any interaction with a title's audience is to be commended, so minor quibbles about formatting can be put aside.

The question hanging over this issue is whether Saviour can bear losing Vallely as artist.

Annoyingly, despite giving over room for letters, there is no explanation of the artistic switch. These types of alterations to creative personnel are important in an ongoing title with only one feature - it speaks to creative intent and continuity of ideas. Are we to accept, however ridiculous the notion, that the appearance and layout would largely have remained the same had Vallely remained? Regardless of occurrences behind the scenes, the continuing narrative of Saviour and the assorted cast are handled magnificently, if not as precisely.

Jesus' hands itch, though he notes that they are not due to bleed until the next day. Attending a church, he hijacks the sermon to call people to his cause, although the priest is quick to summon the authorities to have him removed. His mood is further darkened when see sees a news report that Saviour has been awarded the United Nations' Peace Prize. Saviour, meanwhile, is determined to get his hands on the Apostle of Azrael

The change to Kitching is noticeable, though not an unpleasant change - different rather than inferior. While it would have been more beneficial for the title to retain a single artist throughout at least one complete story arc, the switch is as smooth a transition as is possible.

Millar peppers his script with religious references, which tend towards slightly heavy-handedness, and this issue is the first to present plotting oddities - there's a distinct break with the first issue, focusing almost entirely on Jesus' odd, and later drunken, behaviour. He isn't a particularly likable character, and it is puzzling to see so much space expended on him. I'm guessing that this series will make more sense to the strongly religious.

#01

Saviour

#03