Luke Owen reviews The Twilight Zone #2…
Wall Street magnate Trevor Richmond has succeeded in finding a way to avoid going to prison for embezzling millions from investors. He has a new life, a new name, a new face and a new past. No one can ever come looking for him. It’s everything he could possibly have asked for. Until he discovers someone who lives in his house, his life, with his name, his lover, and worse still, his own face. A total stranger has stolen everything he is, was, and hoped to be…and he’s not about to let that theft go unanswered, no matter what it may cost him.
While issue #1 of J. Michael Straczynski’s The Twilight Zone was clearly a new take on the franchise with a much sexier, darker tone, it still felt like it was in the Rod Serling mold that we have all come to love. The Twilight Zone #2 however feels like a huge step back in terms of story structure, tone and effort. This doesn’t feel like a follow up issue to a good opening to The Twilight Zone and instead feels like a totally different comic – and a poorly written one at that.
In terms of theme, it does kind of work. Our central character Trevor Richmond is now avoiding prison under his new name and face only to discover that the company who provided his escape has given his old life to someone else – and this person is doing a better job with it. The Twilight Zone was always great at telling ‘be careful what you wish for’ type stories and Richmond becoming the jealous ex-lover who wants his old life back is a shining example of how the series could take formulaic stories and turn them on their head. The body-swapping gimmick a clever plot device and works quite nicely for the theme it’s telling, but it’s bogged down by some completely random choices to move the story forward.
The opening of The Twilight Zone #2 is innocent enough with Richmond confronting the company and being given a lecture that (clumsily) hammers home the story’s theme, but then it devolves into a madcap action comic with gun fights, hostages and car jacking. It feels like a completely different comic to not only the first issue, but the first third of this current one. Why J. Michael Straczynski thought this was the best way to move the story forward is anyone’s guess, but it feels very silly and its poor script doesn’t do it any favours. Furthermore, the comic’s conclusion feels as if none of this is going to be followed up in the next issue as Richmond confronts the man who took over his life.
With a bit of luck, the third part of this tale will bring it back on track, but The Twilight Zone #2 is a bit of a mess. The character motivations are there and the theme works great, but its execution is sloppy and the whole ‘crook on the run’ motif feels lazy and unimaginative – which is highly ironic as this is the dimension of imagination. Faith can still be put into J. Michael Straczynski to pull this out of the bag, but this comic isn’t a great showcase of the man’s writing.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published February 5, 2014. Updated November 8, 2019.
