Pretty Deadly, Vol. 2: The Bear

Pretty Deadly #6-10

by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Ríos (Artist)

DeCONNICK (Captain Marvel, BITCH PLANET) and RÍOS (ISLAND, MIRROR) present the follow up to the Eisnernominated, New York Times bestselling PRETTY DEADLY, VOL. 1: THE SHRIKE. Sarah Fields is dying and her children strike a bargain with the Immortals: give them one month, until the moon is full again, to find her son. The boy is far away, in the trenches of France, stalked by the Reapers of Vengeance and Cruelty. Collects PRETTY DEADLY #6-10

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Westerns, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Horror

152 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2016

About the author

Kelly Sue DeConnick’s work spans stage, comics, film and television. Ms. DeConnick first came to prominence as a comics writer, where she is best known for reinventing the Carol Danvers as “Captain Marvel” at Marvel and for the Black Label standard-setting Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons at DC. Her independent comics Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly (both from Image Comics) have ranked as New York Times best-sellers and been honored with Eisner Awards, British Fantasy Awards and Hugo nominations.

Ms. DeConnick’s screen work includes stints on Captain Marvel, a film that earned $1B for Disney worldwide, and 2023’s forthcoming The Marvels with Marvel Studios; in addition to having consulted on features for Skydance and ARRAY, and developed television for NBCUniversal, Legendary Entertainment and HBOMax. Her most recent stage work is the mythic spectacle AWAKENING, which opened at the Wynn Resort Las Vegas in November 2022.

Mission-driven, Ms. DeConnick is also a founding partner at Good Trouble Productions, where she has helped to produce non-fiction and educational comics including the “Hidden Voices” and “Recognized” series for NY Public Schools and Congressman John Lewis’ Run, in partnership with Abrams Comics.

In 2015, Ms. DeConnick founded the #VisibleWomen Project, whose mission is to help women and other marginalized genders find paid work in comics and its related industries. The project continues to this day and recently expanded in partnership with Dani Hedlund of Brink Literacy.

Ms. DeConnick lives in Portland, OR with her husband, writer Matt Fraction, and their two children.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty Deadly travels to the trenches of World War I as Sarah is dying while her son Cyrus is fighting in France. The story quickly shifts to Cyrus as he's trapped overseas by the Reaper of War. Big Alice and Ginny fight him is a mass of swirling reds where I didn't really know what was happening. Once the fighting starts (and it goes on for multiple issues) this might as well be a Jackson Pollock painting. For all the talk of how great an artist Emma Rios is, I couldn't make heads or tails out of what was happening in over half the book. If I'm not explaining this well, blame the creative team, because neither did they. And the pretentious nonsense with the bunny skeleton and the butterfly returns as well.

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly Sue Demonic, Emma Ríos and Jordie Bellaire have done it again. The second volume of Pretty Deadly, just like the first one, is a masterpiece of visual storytelling.

In this second book, the story jumps ahead a couple of decades, and we are in the middle of World War I. Sissy is the new Death. Cyrus has grown up and is a soldier, fighting in France. His mother Sarah, the woman who pulled Sissy out from the sea of blood in the first book, is dying, but, thanks to one of the reapers, she was given time until the next full moon so that Cyrus could come to her and say goodbye. That's the premise, and I don't want to spoil anything more than that, but I will say that the story in this book is much simpler and more straightforward compared to the first one. And that is actually a good thing, because volume one was a bit hard to follow sometimes. Still, the story has that signature melancholic feeling, and Kelly Sue's narrative is beautiful, philosophic and touching, as always.

But the real stars of the show, again, are Emma Ríos and Jordie Bellaire and their incredible, gorgeous artwork. Ríos's layouts are mind-bending and insanely imaginative. She is an artist in a league of her own, and the only comparison I can make is maybe to the great J. H. Williams III, and specifically his work on Sandman Overture. And Bellaire's colours, as always, are genius. She is one of the greatest colourists in the industry, and if for some insane reason you don't believe that, just look at Pretty Deadly. Together, they create one of the most gorgeous comics in the history of comics.

So, what else is there to say? I love Pretty Deadly, and I am very happy that the series lives on. This second volume has been a long time coming, and now I am very interested to see what comes next. It seems like they're going to use the American Vampire-esque concept of exploring different time periods in every volume, which I think is a great idea for this series. I only hope it won't take quite as much time to get there, although with the artwork like this, the delays are completely understandable.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt very much the same about this as the first volume.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good follow-up to Vol1. I thought the narrative on this one was better than the first. Not quite enough to get me to go on to Vol3 though.

The Wild West setting is changed to the trenches of the Great War.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 3 out of 5]

MINOR SPOILERS INCLUDED

Having enjoyed the splatter-tastic villainy of Osborn, I was curious to see whatever glorious conception writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Emma Ríos came up with. Under the publication of Image Comics, the first volume of Pretty Deadly had a unique presentation on how it mashed up the Western genre with the fairy tale, and as a combination of muddled storytelling and luscious art, there was enough interest to see where the story will take us.

Once again, told by a skeleton bunny to a butterfly, years after Ginny’s road of vengeance, the children of a dying Sarah Fields beg Sissy, now assuming the mantle of Death, for one more full moon so she may say goodbye to her youngest son Cyrus who is fighting for the French in the First World War.

Although you do get reprisals from the Reapers, they are somewhat sidelined by Cyrus’ ordeal in the trenches. With this human story taking centre stage, this is a step-up for DeConnick who crammed so many ideas in the first volume, it was hard to keep up. Despite a few quibbles such as a number of characters’ vague participation as well as once again another generic villain in the form of the Reaper of War, this is a more coherent story which questions humanity’s need of war, through the folkloric storytelling from its fantasy characters.

Following the spaghetti western landscapes of Volume 1, the setting of World War I is even more unsettling as Emma Ríos doesn’t strike that same chord of beauty as her art is murkier and more abstract than before, which at times looks great on splash pages, but less so with action-filled panels. As for Jordie Bellaire who previously applied a European colour palette that you don’t associate with the Western genre, her choice of colours here is a very dark palette contrasting with bright red, which is oddly appropriate to the grim nature of the book.

Following the jam-packed storytelling of the previous volume, Kelly Sue DeConnick steps up her game with a touching human story set in the midst of war, whilst Emma Ríos’ art is good but isn’t as visually striking as before. Things still remain weird though and I look forward to Volume 3.

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Artwork is stunning as hell; I wish the story wasn't so inscrutable but it IS much clearer than volume 1.

I'd be down with reading volume 3. I've read far worse.

[Victoria ✮⋆˙ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this! The art in this volume was so amazing! The story was a little hard to follow again but I still really enjoyed reading it.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty Deadly epitomizes the dark folklore that is inherent to a desert - it is that tear in the veil that happens just as the sun sets and the barren ground rapidly loses its day time heat. The instant, sweeping change of desert night is inherently different than nightfall in a forest, or in the mountains, or in a wind-whipped valley. Sit alone and listen the night rushing in around you, or the trickle in behind mountain peaks, or encompass you like a blanket, see how it changes your perspective in different settings. Pretty Deadly is a desert full of death, and beauty, and naked mysticism and its utterly gorgeous.

The story line is maze, the script is gorgeous, and the art work is breathtaking. I just spent two days in the National Gallery of Art staring at my favorite paintings, and I find myself as equally mesmerized by the artwork in both Pretty Deadly Volumes.

5 out of 5 stars, no question about it.

[Ezgi T · Rating 4 out of 5]

O nasıl bir son yahu.

[Kitty G Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had already read a few of the issues from this volume, so I kind of knew what I thought about it as a whole, but being able to see the images in larger format rather than on the tiny phone screen meant that they came out a lot clearer and I was able to pick up on some of the more subtle nuances easier such as figures hidden in swirls of smoke.

This story still keeps in theme with the first volume, but the tone of this one is much darker and more sinister. We are once more following Sissy (Reaper of Death) but here she's in a war against various other Immortal beings such as War, Cruelty and Vengeance. This story claims that war comes about because of these beings and this is not something Sissy will sit back and watch needlessly, so the battle between them begins.

We also follow the story of Sarah who is an old woman and is dying. Her son, Cyrus, is far away fighting in the trenches and his family want him home to say a fond farewell to Sarah before she dies. Sarah is given until the next full moon for Cyrus to come home by one of the Immortal Reapers.

This volume felt easier to understand than the first one and I think it's a little simpler overall. The artwork is just as complex and filled with hidden meanings and silhouettes which have more relevance as the story goes on, but the actual text is a little more direct.

What I liked most was, as always, the artwork, particularly for issue #6 (which is the first in this volume) as I think that made the whole story come to life. Emma Rios did a great job of recreating the Reapers and the different landscapes in various colours and sometimes we would have blood red dominating the war pages, sometimes lurid green to indicate the presence of Reapers and so on.

I believe that this series is a good one overall. I did enjoy volume #1 more than volume #2 personally, but I will still continue onto volume #3 when that comes out as I just adore the art and the story does come second for me. I would have liked the story to be a little more whimsical overall and have less emphasis on trivialising the war as though it's just an Immortal's playground. I think there was room to give a lot more meaning and depth to the plot than just that, but I felt the mark was slightly missed so I ended up giving it a 3.5*s overall.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well drawn and written, but I'd be lying if I said I understood it

[Get X Serious · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh gosh. Maybe jumping straight into this second volume without any refresher on the first isn't the best idea.

So we've got most of the same characters but jump ahead a few decades into World War I. Confusion ensues. There's some narrative confusion, but also I just had a really hard time deciphering some of the art. And honestly, I couldn't care less. It's just beautiful. It's kind of the same feeling I had when I was reading Sandman: Overture. Even though the art is entirely different. Ya know, it's like, dude, not meant to be fully understood, maannn.

So I guess that's what I want to say about this series. It's beautiful. The storytelling, the illustrations, the concepts, the dialogue. It's just beautiful. So it's a worthy trade off for a little bit of confusion.

On another note, I gotta stop reading so many comics with the personification of Death... it's getting to be a bit much.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange and pretty and folkloric.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book made me strangely emotional towards the end. Loved it. I love books that a) feature Death as a character, and b) are about the beauty there is in it. Not saying that Death isn't hard and cruel, but it is also beautiful.

The artwork was GORGEOUS! It was hard to follow sometimes, but they did a fantastic job of letting the art tell the story. My only complaint about this book is that it isn't thicker.

[Dev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first volume but I just felt absolutely nothing for this one. Maybe it was the huge time skip and the major change in setting? The story definitely felt more convoluted and the artwork is gorgeous but also entirely too busy. It all came together in the end but for most of this issue I really had no idea what was going on.

[Jesse A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear improvement from Volume 1. Still with beautiful art but with a more coherent story and (somewhat) clearer direction.

[Brian Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty Deadly remains one of the more distinctive books on the market.

The daughter of a dying woman makes a deal with one of the reapers of death. Give the woman a reprieve to provide her son a chance to come home to say goodbye. That young man is entrenched in the battlefields of World War I. The reapers of death and fortune converge for a showdown with the reaper of war that has a fearsome toll.

A mystical revisionist western, Pretty Deadly doesn’t follow a traditional narrative path. Much like the first arc, Volume 2 is dense and poetic. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick is more about atmosphere than plot with this project. Even those who read the first arc might struggle with keeping the story straight. But where DeConnick really shines is in communicating the power of primal forces. As a meditation on the horror of war, The Bear succeeds in painting a dark portrait with a lot of impact. Even if a reader has trouble tracking the specific flow of action, the strength of the emotional content and ideas make this a book worth reading. It may not be DeConnick’s most accessible work, but it displays her point of view in a fashion that’s different from her other recent projects.

A bigger draw for Pretty Deadly might be its world class art team. Emma Rios and Jordie Bellaire collaborate to craft one of the most original visual presentations in the recent comic book market. Rios has a singular design sense, composing pages and layouts in a way that creates a swirl of images and optical sensations. In the more esoteric parts of the story, Rios unleashes her imagination, crafting some astounding pages that marry the book’s fantasy and realist elements in dynamic, innovative ways. Bellaire is one of the best color artists in the business and brings her imaginative palette, strength for crafting tonal contrasts and facility for wrapping images in a bright shimmer that gives the entire package an inviting glow. Even if you struggle to follow the plot, Rios and Bellaire give you some exotic, engaging pages to drink in.

Pretty Deadly isn’t the most accessible book and reading the prior arc is necessary to having any chance at figuring out its characters and beats. For readers willing to meet its challenges, Volume 2 provides subtle, satisfying rewards.

[Mangrii · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75 / 5

Esta segunda entrega de Bella Muerte, subtitulada como El oso, es una gran ampliación del particular universo fantástico tejido por DeConnick y plasmado por Emma Ríos. Sin embargo, al igual que su antecesor, arranca con un diálogo entre Conejito y Mariposa, sus narradores principales. Y de nuevo, volvemos a este metacuento, repleto de niveles y capas de lectura, dando paso a un nuevo conflicto en esta historia.

Esta vez dejamos el Viejo Oeste, y nos vamos directos a la guerra y sus trincheras. Concretamente, a la Primera Guerra Mundial, donde Cyrus, hijo de una moribunda Sarah (que conocimos en Bella Muerte) lucha por sobrevivir. Sin embargo, Sarah, en sus últimos días de vida, recibe la visita de Zorro como personificación de la muerte. La familia de Sarah le pedirá una tregua, con la esperanza de que su hijo militar pueda venir a despedirse.

Y a partir de aquí, la historia toma una doble vertiente, caminando por el realismo mágico y un fuerte onirismo donde las segadoras de la Muerte se enfrentan a las del Miedo, Guerra y Fortuna. El argumento, aunque más fluido y lineal que su primera entrega, sigue teniendo un guion complejo, confuso y complicado de seguir, no apto para todos los paladares. DeConnick sigue reflexionando sobre temas universales: el amor, sobre la muerte, la suerte y la fugacidad de la vida a la par que explora su universo, se ramifica y cocina el futuro final de la serie, aunque cada tomo sea autoconclusivo.

Lo que no cambia es el arte. Lo que hace Emma Ríos es impresionante, de otro mundo. Barroco, delicado, potente y detallado. Cada viñeta es un intrincado diseño narrativo, tanto de personajes como de lectura y composición, que se engalana escena a escena con los colores de Jordi Bellaire. Ambas forman el sello personal y distinguible de la serie, repleta de páginas arriesgadas, experimentales y de lo más disfrutables.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This surely has to be right up there with the very best graphic novels ever created, the combination of DeConnick and Rios providing a truly exceptional visual experience in ways that only excellent graphic novels can do. Generally I find nonsense like Marvel to be pitched at the lowest common denominator these days but Pretty Deadly feels like the anti Marvel in so many ways, not least in how it is pitched at a much higher intellectual level than those Disney owned toy catalogues. It was so long between volumes that I'd completely forgotten what had come before but it is such an immersive experience to journey through a DeConnick/Rios book that it hardly even matters. I think in a few more years if they maintain the quality Pretty Deadly will surely surpass anything produced by Gaiman as THE graphic novel collection to own for hipster comic readers who also value story.

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to say about this one. The story's pretty straightforward, compared to volume one. Find the grandson, who happens to be in the trenches during WWI, and bring him home for his dying grandmother to say goodbye to him.

The imagery by Emma Rios is, at times, jaw-droppingly beautiful. Ironic, considering the terrible conditions experienced by the boys and men in the trenches. There is something creepy, horrific and mind-blowing about some of the panels.

Bunny and Butterfly are back, opening the action and commenting on it, rather like a Greek chorus.

I was a little confused by the presence of all the Reapers in the story.

I think I liked it. Again, I think a rereading at a later date will help.

[Damon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike the first one, this one does not enthrall. Too much effort on innovation at the cost of good story telling. The characters this time around are flat and quiet.

[Pablo Rodríguez Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.5/10
Sigo teniendo algún que otro problemilla con el guión. Principalmente por que la mitología que usa me interesa más bien poco. Ahora, QUE PUTA SALVAJADA DE DIBUJO EMMA RÍOS ES UNA DIOSA MY GOD.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

still not sure what is happening but i liked it

[osoi · Rating 3 out of 5]

О первом томе у меня остались восторженные, но размытые воспоминания, которые должны были обогатиться новыми впечатлениями от второй книги. И как-то не вышло. Ощущение, что никакая вторая-третья-десятая часть не сравнится с оригиналом, и даже пытаться не стоило. Истории все так же сопутствует прекрасный рисунок, где каждая страница - это маленький акробатический этюд, где линии и краски перетекают друг в друга, трансформируются, но никогда не смешиваются.

Основная линия и ее завершение показались слишком безыскусными по отношению к сюжетной канве первой части, где на меня градом сыпались мифология, семейные драмы, ожесточенные судьбой герои, Смерть и цикличность всего происходящего. Та легла на душу ровно так, как должно, без оговорок, хотя не все ниточки соединились при первом же прочтении. В этой многослойности и загадке таится часть ее очарования. А вторая.. кажется, что вместо целого нового мира, заставляющего гадать о каждом следующем шаге, мне подсунули невероятно растянутую и предсказуемую историю в неинтересном сеттинге. Даже герои, перед которыми тогда хотелось упасть на колени, тут словно побледнели, а на замену никто не подоспел. Настрой на неизбывную лирику вперемешку с мифологичностью так и не пробудился. Извини, Pretty Deadly, но что-то в этом мире поменялось.

lukk.svbtle

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like volume 2 quite as much as volume 1. The art is still amazing, and the book is worth picking up on that alone. It can be kind of trippy at times. However, the pages are done beautifully and really push at expectations of what a comic does.

The story itself is good, but I felt like it was a notch below the first volume. This book expands on some of what came before. It loses a little of the mystique along the way though. The book really takes a shift away from that western style to one focused on war, with a big part of the tale taking place in the trenches during World War I.

I like the characters. They are well written and pulled me into their stories. It's interesting to see what Sissy does now that she wears the mantle of Death. This allows the setting to open up in ways that the reader wouldn't quite expect from the first volume. It can be a bit jumbled at times, but that is part of what I like about the book. I'd like to see more from this group.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume moves the story forward a generation, which doesn't affect most of the characters, seeing as how they are immortals. But instead of the old west, we're in World War I, as Cyrus, the grandson of Sarah is central to Molly Raven's attempts to end the conflict, via Ginny and Alice. But it really is Cyrus' story, and it takes some unexpected twists and turns. The artwork is gorgeous again, although it again overwhelms the clarity of the story in its (successful) attempts to be beautiful. Still, the story does ultimately play out with a poignant ending and some extraordinary scenes. It's very different from the first volume in a lot of ways, but in a lot of ways it feels very much in tune with it too.

[Tar Buendía · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sigue siendo difícil de entender pero no tanto como el primero. Cuando te acostumbras al estilo de narración se hace además mucho más fluido, yo no recomendaría leerlo en grapas la verdad.

La historia merece mucho la pena, Kelly Sue es una reina.

En cuanto al arte es una gozada. El dibujo de Emma Ríos mezclado al color de Jordie Bellaire es un orgasmo visual.

Al final vienen unos textos recopilados de Kelly Sue que me han llegado a la patata y la explicación del proceso creativo de una de las páginas.

Las historias sobre Muerte tienden a ser de mis favoritas.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked this volume more than the last one. There's something about going into more depth with the Reapers that I found really fascinating. I'm quite intrigued to see where the Reapers' stories go.

[Laura]

completely bonkers & hard to follow, as with the first volume. strangely alluring art that sometimes borders on the grotesque. love all the badass women.

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn, this book is beautiful.