Stillwater, Vol. 2: Always Loyal

Stillwater

by Chip Zdarsky, Ramón Pérez (Contributor), Mike Spicer (Contributor)

“The pacing, script, and artwork are all dynamite” – AIPT
Chip Zdarsky (Daredevil) and Ramon K Perez’s (Tales of Sand, Jane) sensational horror series returns!

Chaos in Stillwater erupts! With the Judge out of commission, Ted and his militia storm the town and take control. But in this small town where no one can die, there are others willing to go even further...


Collects STILLWATER #7-12.

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

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 2022

About the author

Chip Zdarsky is a Canadian comic book artist and journalist. He was born Steve Murray but is known by his fan base as Chip Zdarsky, and occasionally Todd Diamond. He writes and illustrates an advice column called Extremely Bad Advice for the Canadian national newspaper National Post's The Ampersand, their pop culture section's online edition. He is also the creator of Prison Funnies and Monster Cops.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of the same. Things change, but nothing feels like it has dramatic heft, no importance to anything, no stakes. There's no tense ramp up, just event after event.

You could have had an interesting, thoughtful story about the cost of immortality, but what we get is just another story about killing people in the most violent way possible.

And it has a "twist" ending that comes out of nowhere. Sigh.

I'm still hoping Zdarsky will come up with a reason for the curse existing, because I'm pretty sure by now it'll be disappointing.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm just on the verge of hating this. A military coup kicks off a book of very dull political intrigue and shifting alliances. There's even a big conspiracy reveal that should have changed everything but is frittered away amidst all the pointless blood and gore with characters who heal and resurrect almost immediately.

And I don't know if it shows carelessness on the part of the writer and editor or if it is a purposeful little prank on nitpickers like me, but one character's name over the course of two volumes has been spelled Quintin, Quinten, and Quentin. Either way, it's super annoying.

If the next book is a conclusion, I might come back to see how it turns out, but if the series is ongoing, then I'm done with it.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. So we have ourselves a regime change in this volume. The people who were running the show in Stillwater are no longer in charge. This probably could have gotten 4 stars if Chip had worked that power change a little better. Made me more of a believer that those marine guys would go for it. Ah well. Under the new leadership, things are a little different. They let some of the adults leave with the some of the young kids so that can actually grow up and not be trapped in these kid bodies forever. One of our main protagonists, Daniel/Tommy’s mother is one of the people taking the kids out of the town. But she is still watched. If she tries to run, they will kill her son, Daniel/Tommy, and if her son tries to run they will kill his mother. So even under new leadership, they all still feel trapped. So they tell themselves this new leader has to go too. Bring on vol 3!!

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so fucking awesome. It’s a shame it’s ending after a one shot and a third volume, but it has been one of the more enjoyable Image ongoings. Great ending to the volume as well, and I really don’t know what Zdarsky has in store for us during volume 3.

[Valéria. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jedna z tých lepších sérií, ktoré momentálne vychádzajú a stále niečím prekvapuje. Posledné číslo z tohto bolo fakt skvelé so zvratom jak prasa. A Pérez tiež v posledných číslach ukazuje viac a viac čo dokáže.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings when I reviewed the first volume of Stillwater by Chip Zdarsky and Ramon K. Pérez almost a year ago — Zdarsky’s first dabble into horror wasn’t that scary, given its Twilight Zone-like premise. In recent years, Zdarsky has certainly shown a more dramatic side in his writing with his terrific Daredevil run, and has even stepped up his horror game with his issue on Michael Walsh’s The Silver Coin. With now another six issues out the bag, has Stillwater stepped up its own game?

Please click here for my full review.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing setup in the first Stillwater volume immediately leads to diminishing returns. After Ted's Marine buddies invaded at the end of the first volume, we see the fallout of that operation (basically a bunch of maimed individuals slowly regenerating limbs since they can't die). There's an expectation that the new leadership will be removing some citizens, but just as quickly as the new leadership is in place, they're overturned by the town's old-but-still-young-looking children who are secretly in cahoots with Ted's marines.

I'll admit, that was an interesting twist. But from there, it just becomes Game of Thrones. Every issue seems to find a character saying "I don't like it, but we gotta take < name > out." And then they try to do that and fail for some reason or another and the cycle continues. Chip Zdarsky seems very quickly to have run out of steam. The Walking Dead this is not, though it's obviously trying to play the same long game.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted’s former Marine buddies, now significantly older than him, have stormed the town after the courthouse was blown up in volume one. But into this power void, steps Galen, a preteen forever trapped in a young body but with the mind of a savvy adult. He and the other children hate their existence and demand the chance to leave the town to grow up before returning, as Daniel did. Laura takes the first batch of children into the world, leaving behind Daniel as collateral. Tanya, the red-headed former sheriff’s assistant, leads a faction of Stillwater inhabitants who want freedom from the “gift” of eternal life, and she and Daniel bide their time waiting for the right time to revolt. When Laura returns and Clara, a woman who lives on the edges of town is brought into the group, they decide this is the time to take a stand against the new leader Galen and the militia. Chaos ensues. (Actual review 3.5/5)

This review (plus V3) can be found on my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2023/11/0...

[Zedsdead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drama! Somebody blew up city hall with half the town inside. Deputy Ted brings in his old Marine unit in an attempt to gain power. And Stillwater gains a new mayor.

And now I'm thinking that Zdarsky intends Stillwater as a metaphor for the American immigration culture war. The good guys want the freedom to leave town and see their family. The bad guys use murder and terror to lock down the town border, splitting up families, killing innocents, mouthing regrets but insisting that the violence and restrictions on freedom are necessary to keep its residents safe. Whether they want it or not.

Plot points:
--Ted did it. Ted blew everyone up so that the judge would blame the liberal, free-the-townsfolk contingent and clamp down ever harder.
--Ted's Marine unit, working for Galen (surprise!), rounds up the freedom faction and puts them in cages.
--Galen has the Judge executed and implements a program that will allow the town's children to leave the borders and grow into adult bodies. But he continues executing innocents.
--Laura is sent outside with some of the town's 40yo children and Danny/Tommy is kept in town. They are each being held hostage to control the other.
--Laura, Danny/Tommy, and ex-sheriff Tanya try to overthrow Galen, but Kreegs turns the tables, takes Danny/Tommy to the edge of town, and sets him on fire.
--Somehow Laura thinks to redraw the town boundaries on an old map in the mayor's office. The range of the immortality phenomenon is expanded and Danny/Tommy walks out of the flames, horrifically burned. TWIST.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this, don't get me wrong - wolfed down the first two volumes in an hour or two, not knowing anything about the comic going in. Fun premise - a town where nobody can die, or even get hurt, so everyone is stuck just the way they were when "the stillness" hit. Including the kids, who can never grow up, and the assholes, who have no incentive to repent - and this being the middle of nowhere, USA, the town wasn't exactly lively in the first place.

So refusal to change fucks everything up - not the most subtle metaphor, but metaphor isn't really what Stillwater is going for. Nor is character, or theme, or vibe, or anything beyond a remorseless procession of violent and, yes, twisty and exciting events. What it reads like - and it is not alone in this for a modern creator-owned comic - is the pitch bible for a streaming show, except in comic form. Characterisation and mood and theme and all that stuff can wait until the story's next incarnation: all this audience gets is plot, and plenty of it.

[Nazım · Rating 2 out of 5]

Açık olmak gerekirse ilk cilt için söylediğim olumlu her şeyi bana yediren bir devam kitabı oldu.
Büyük umutlar vermese de kendi içinde tutarlı, bir tv serisi olabilecek bir seri, nazarımda biraz da şov yapmak için epeyce harcanmış. Hikayeyi daha da girift hale getirmek için zorlama eklentiler, sürekli zaman atlamaları ve flashbackler, hikayenin tıkandığı her noktada karakterlerin değişen durumları aşırı hızlı kabullenip kahramanlığa soyunmaları vs bi noktada okumayı çekilmez hale getiriyor. Umarım bi bilinçli bir seçimdir ve 3.cilde hazırlık için yaratılmış bilinçli bir sıkıntıdan ibarettir.

Bekleyip göreceğiz.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 | #11 | #12

Total review score: 2.42

[Batuhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

İlk kitabı okuduktan hikayenin sürükleyiciliğiyle 2.kitabı okumaya başladım. 2.kitapda hoşuma gitti fakat olaylar çok hızlı gerçekleşti. Arada oluşan boşlukları kendiniz doldurmaya başlıyorsunuz. Şu an 3.kitabı bekliyorum. Bakalım hikaye nasıl bitecek. Bu hikayenin dizisi çekilirse de keyifle izlenir.

[Alex Sarll]

Of all the things to do with a town where nobody can die, bullets flying is one of the least interesting, given lots of shooting with minimal consequences is already an action movie staple. I feared this series was going to go too fast, in direct contrast to its characters' extended backwater lives, and so it proves: unless you're going for madcap, three coups in six issues is too many. Not once does anyone get to do anything not plot-related, give any sense of themselves as a full person. I know there's only one more volume, and the library has it, but if I complete this series it will be through foolish completism, nothing better.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was starting to look like this was just going to be more of the same, but then Zdarsky threw in a neat little twist involving the children of Stillwater. After a short bit of upheaval, then it was, in fact, back to more of the same. Way too much pointless violence in this series. You'd think more could be done with this premise (I'd like to see how that "newborn" child fares in the outside world, for example), but it's just fighting and shooting and slicing necks and since everyone is immortal and recovers almost immediately, it really is pointless. Also, why is Ted still alive? But then, again, at book's end, there's another interesting twist that has me just interested enough to see where things are going next.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

2024 review:

I am so glad that I reread these first two volumes back to back so that everything was fresh. It's a fun and interesting horror series with great art and all around solid creepy vibes. I'm really excited to finally read the concluding volume after this. Recommended for horror comics fans!


2022 review:

Stillwater has been a fun and creepy series so far, and I've enjoyed the continuation of it here. The story took some excellent and unexpected twists. Overall the series is worth a read and I look forward to reading more.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The big reveal could have come 5 issues earlier, instead it's an almost predictable cliffhanger - and one that just creates but, but...questions rather than suspense.

[Damian Herde · Rating 4 out of 5]

The continuation of the story of the town of Stillwater, where no-one can die. The immortal effect has been in place for 35 years, and the Judge has ruled as a fascist dictator, even killing anyone in his way. The arrival of Daniel, a baby who was taken out of town to allow him to grow into an adult, threw the town into turmoil.

The marine buddies of Ted, the police enforcer, work as mercenaries for whoever is in charge. Internment camps are set up and the factions fight. With the overthrow of the old, the new regime very quickly comes to resemble the old, in ‘Animal Farm’ style.

Still interesting, but the USA setting just means that people are getting shot all the time, and over and over again, because guns are the solution to all the problems. It’s getting tiresome. Hopefully the next volume moves in a different direction.

[Spencer Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This middle volume keeps up the exciting pace of this series while introducing a new conflict. This series is violent and intense but still find a way to have stakes despite now one being able to die in the town. The end of this volume has a fun twist and I’m interested to see how this story finishes out.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this volume slightly more than the first. This volume focuses on the children who grew up in mind but not in body, including an infant. There's a big revolution, and then a twist I didn't see coming. I am curious to see the conclusion.

[Sem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zdarsky, you magnificent bastard, that ending is SO promising. I cannot wait to see where this goes. Also, give a round of applause to Perez for those two images of Daniel, you know the ones.

[Lio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This installment made me wonder if the story was just an excuse to get as violent as possible, but the last chapter absolutely caught my interest, so I went on to the last installment.

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really getting into Stillwater. Love almost everything Chip writes. We need a Stillwater Netflix or Max series to stream.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

There used to be a frequent discussion in comics about whether an author was writing story issue to issue, or writing it "for the trade". Were they making five or six issue story arcs so that someone could read volume one, and then go back a year or two later, pick up volume two and still be able to completely follow the story, similarly to the way Stan Lee's Marvel Way of making sure every issue made sense, even if issue #163 was the first one they picked up? Were they just writing each issue to be its own story? Or were they writing one long serial with no natural starting and stopping points except for the first and final issues?

At some point in the last decade, almost every regular series has been written "for the trade". Sure, a volume may end on a huge cliffhanger, but the next volume will start with a distinct new beginning, and unfold as if it's the beginning of a story. Because this has become the norm, it was completely jarring to pick up this second volume of Stillwater and think "What the fuck is happening here?"

I remembered the concept of the first volume, and a few details but the initial incident in this volume (which began at the end of the previous volume) had completely slipped my mind. I didn't know who many of the characters were, and I wasn't sure I was going to continue.

It wasn't like starting to read The Walking Dead at volume 11. It was like starting to read The Walking Dead on the thirteenth page of volume four. It's not indecipherable but it's not terribly interesting to someone who hasn't just put down the previous volume.

Once the story found its groove, I enjoyed the conceit, but the actual plot and character developments didn't grab me. There is a point in the middle of the book where the protagonist relents to the antagonist that he doesn't make plans and just keeps doing things off the cuff and making bad decisions. I feel like that's a good encapsulation of this title. It doesn't feel like Zdarsky knows where he's going with this story, that the possibilities are overwhelming him so he's trying to go from reveal to reveal. But none of them worked for me. It's a shame because I love Zdarsky's work on Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky, Vol. 1: Know Fear and Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Into the Twilight.

I don't think I'll be picking up volume three.

[Billy Jepma · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this volume still scratches the same itch as the first one (Twilight Zone meets apocalypse horror meets political drama), it didn't land as well for me. The plot moves too fast for the stakes to feel as tactile as they should've been, leaving the otherwise interesting plot developments without any room to breathe. All of the stuff I enjoyed so much in the first volume is still around, and I continue to enjoy it here; it just lacks the same bite.

Perez and Spicer's art remains pretty great, though. There were moments when the visuals seemed looser than I remembered, but the art successfully maintains an unsettling moodiness that I very much vibe with. I do wish some of the characters had more distinct looks because the cast is still significant, and there are a few too many people who look similar to each other. It wasn't uncommon for it to take me a couple of panels to recognize who was on the page.

Even if I'm less enthused by this outing, all its themes and juicy genre elements are so up my alley that I'm still on board for the long haul.

[Ariz]

I am personally enjoying this ride, but if the payoff doesn't satisfy, it will affect the series as a whole for me. There are a lot of loose ends which prompts A LOT of questions from me. Like (spoilers): Why are they staging coup after coup? I think a good strategy would be to simply try and get ONE person out into the world and tell people about Stillwater. Laura I presume didn't take that chance bc Daniel would be killed, but that's your only way out. Trying to kill people within the borders of the town is a fools errand and it keeps being done. I'm intrigued as to what will happen next, but I duuno about all these decisions.
I feel like we don't have a grasp on what the other children feel or think. We are only privy to Galen, and I doubt he speaks and thinks for all of them. There were quite a bit of people in the welcome party- why are they (assuming there are surviving members), not also trying to find a way out? Also a big thing: but I find it VERY hard to believe no one else found out about the tree fort or the Marine hideout in all this time. At least Tanya should've smh.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a bland comic from a creative team one might have expected a bit more from. I wasn't really on board with the first six issues, but I did find the ending interesting enough to hook me into reading another volume. But there is no proper sense of pacing and the characters continue to be rather uninteresting given they're all mostly immortal beings. The concept is explored at a barebones level, enough to still feel like an intruiging premise, but with nothing beyond that.

This arc focuses on a coup crafted by one of Stillwater's more unassuming denizens. It's actually one of the better moments, but quickly we learn that we've traded one antagonist for another. I do think the newer antagonist has a bit more of a fertile ground to do more with, so perhaps it will pay off in a future volume. Otherwise, most of this comic was a dull affair. Ramon Perez continues to deliver some solid artwork, but I still feel like there isn't enough for him to do here.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ted's sergeant Kreegs offers to help keep the peace in Stillwater in exchange for being allowed to live there. The rebels call themselves the Welcome Party. Judge Taylor intends to quell their uprising, with violence if need be, and then to re-educate them. Daniel is saved by Galen who reveals that the town's children have a plan of their own.

Even Kreegs and his squad are on the childrens' side, which means Ted is out. The kids take control, but they're just a different type of tyrants.

Daniel, Tanya and Laura still plan to free the town from opression, even if it means the government will find out about its condition. They attack the new rulers, but Daniel gets captured and taken outside town for execution. Laura changes the town borders on a map to extend them until Daniel's position is included.

[Alan D.D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Repetitivo, el mismo drama del volumen anterior, pero puesto de manera distinta, y sin aprovechar las implicaciones filosóficas, psicológicas, sociales, religiosas, en fin, todo el debate que podría generar el que todos vivan para siempre. El final no tuvo ningún sentido para mí, un movimiento forzado y poco creíble que terminó por arruinar lo que podría haber sido un catalizador bien elaborado.

Repetitive, the same drama from the previous volume, but put in a different way, and without taking advantage of the philosophical, psychological, social, religious implications, in short, all the debate that everyone living forever could generate. The ending made no sense to me, a forced and unbelievable move that ended up ruining what could have been a well-crafted catalyst.

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

And then the ol’ wheels fell off. What a waste. First volume had just enough intrigue to make me try this next set and then the crash and burn happened.

There’s a resolution with the Judge and it’s so fast and the reason felt like “just cause!” And a new group takes over the town and the reason again felt like “just cause!”

I won’t be continuing on with this series, which is a bummer because I like a decent mystery but I get the feeling the “why” of the town won’t ever actually be answered since the author is way more interested in the nit picking politics and in-fighting of the town which isn’t my bag, baby.