Rogue: Savage Land #2: The Winds Of War from a Dark Tower

Less clothes, more action! That’s the theme here, though it’s Magneto’s turn this issue. Seeley moves the plot along steadily while giving the creative team the width to play with the wild visuals of the Savage Land. Once again Seeley has Rogues internal and external voice down perfect and she really feels like the way less experienced person she was then but no less fearless and determined than we know Rogue to be. Magneto is solidly written too and his tone with Rogue while softening a little still carries the feeling of his lived experience as he talks to her of war. Seeley gets to bring in various tribes of the Savage Land (Including familiar and new faces) and the theme of the Savage Land in peril is used to drive these characters actions leading to more confrontation as Rogue and Magneto find themselves in the middle of it all.

Meanwhile we find out what Zaladane is up to and how this is actually fomenting conflict through disastrous ecological change using dark magic. We get a pretty great rescue scene that shows of Rogue’s cunning and ability sans powers as she rescues Ka-Zar and they join forces. What Seeley does really well here is put Rogue in the middle of everything as she has to convince Ka-Zar Magneto is not a danger. It feels like a jungle adventure meets Lord of the Rings meets Indiana Jones and if that’s not a sound recommendation to be reading it, well then I don’t know what is.

Artist Zulema Scotto Lavina continues to impress, her Rogue is a gorgeous woman of action and the creative team gets to have a great deal of fun here with dinosaurs, fights, holograms, and several explosions as the adventure continues. A small thing but probably my favorite thing is Rogue using the piece of table with the X-men logo Madelyne Pryor designed for the outback X-men as a weapon in combat against various foes throughout the issue. Lavina is great with facial expression and communicating emotional tone through the set of a characters eyes. Rachelle Rosenberg’s color pallet is bright and lush as she gets to play with jungle green, rich evening blues, purples and red’s and golden yellows in the savage skyline. Arianna Maher is flawless on letters again and really the production value of the entire book is so high that one can’t help but get swept away in the adventure.