Saturday, June 19, 2010

Hard Time: Season Two #1-7

Written by Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes
Art by Brian Hurtt and Steve Bird

Having finished off 'Season One' of this series last week, I quickly dove in to 'Season Two'.  Gerber's teenage prison drama, featuring New Age style mystical powers, was a very interesting experiment in unconventional super powered comics.

Ethan continues to get by in prison, and in this season the adopted parents of his girlfriend try to mount a publicity campaign designed to free him, while a lot of the usual prison stuff also goes on.  Further complicating Ethan's already difficult life is the arrival of a new inmate, known as Cutter.  This guy experiments with scarification as an art form, and somehow has the ability to mess with Ethan's khe chara, his energy or astral form.

Like the previous parts of this series, Season Two gives us very strong character work, in both the writing and in the awesome artwork of Brian Hurtt.  It's a shame the series didn't last longer, but I did like the final issue, which shows us Ethan '49 Years Later', and wraps up all the relevant plotlines.

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