Father’s Day #2 Review

An old school mob story with a father/daughter twist. Father’s Day #2 is a violently fun ride. Read on to find out why.

Official description from DARK HORSE:
An ex-mob enforcer and his estranged daughter are on the worst road trip ever. Driving a stolen Plymouth along a lonely desert highway, the unhappy duo would be at each other’s throats… were they not having to fight for their lives on old Route 66!

In Father’s Day #2, Silas Smith and his estranged daughter are on the run from a vengeful mob. Literally. This is a “getting to know you” story laced with bullets and blood. The Eastside Butcher tried to keep his family safe from the mob but now that his daughter, Denise, has tracked him down, the mob isn’t far behind. So what’s better than a father, daughter reunion? A road trip on the backroads of Route 66!

There’s really no mystery to this story so far, but Silas’ daughter is a bit more experienced in self-defense than she’s letting on. Other than that, writer Mike Richardson has written a run-from-the mob tale with daddy issues. It’s fun, violent and energetic and the underlying father daughter awkward reunion is just the icing on the cake. Richardson makes Denise a formidable opponent to the mob and a thorn in the side of her father but with good intentions. If that’s even possible.

Gabriel Guzman draws gritty and dark panels with heavy line work and shadows. His action sequences are top notch and he shows movement on the page as good as I’ve ever seen. Illustrating a chase scene is one of the toughest assignments in comics but Guzman handles it flawlessly.

The biggest shift in this issue verses the first is that Richardson finally gives us a glimpse of the mob’s side of the story. Lorenzo is the man tasked with taking out Silas and his, unknown to them, new accomplice. Lorenzo is trying to bring a new school mentality to his old school mob family and Silas is making that task even more difficult. The mob’s getting desperate with an ever shrinking amount of patience. This makes the villain that much more dangerous and Richardson is upping the ante.

This is a straight up action crime comic with no frills, but that’s OK. Sometimes a good book is simple in design and well-executed and that’s enough. Father’s Day manages that task and for those who enjoy their action bloody then this is a story you should most definitely pick-up.