In The Land of the Ice and Snow
The use of an omniscient narrator to poetically tells us of some of the extra details and make allusions to Jean Paul Valley's thoughts sets the tone of this series as a very mythical one, and helps keep the current mindset of Jean Paul Valley appear more broken and detached. We don't get truly inside his head because his head is impenetrable, covered in layers of brainwashing and the attempts to overcome it.
Kitson outdoes his work from last issue, weaving flames and shadow with a closer proficiency to Joe Quesada before him. And then he weaves ice and shadow equally well, with its own unique flair separating it from how fire is weaved with shadow. Plus he gives us Die Eiskathedrale, Ice Cathedral. Headquarters of the Order of St. Dumas and.... just so awesome. Rarely before have I seen a behemothic castle so distinctly sprawling out to the size of a city.
In addition to Azrael's quest for answers, we get a better look at some of the inner workings of The Order of St. Dumas. There's some pretty excellent stuff here, right up my alley, with ancient religious conspiracies and cults, members of the same faction with varying and uncertain motivations, and dissent within the leadership. O'Neil has whipped up a frenzied storm of potential here, and Azrael's about to stride straight through the middle of it. Not to say that there aren't a few flaws, two particular notable ones stand out. The first being that the order doesn't really feel like a full order. Something's just a tad bit too claustrophobic about the whole atmosphere of the Ice Cathedral. It almost feels like the three characters we're exposed to are just about the only ones occupying this entire city sized structure, like some kind of basement cult as opposed to a secret order dating back centuries. And then there's Sister Lilhy's attempted replacement Azrael. This guy is apparently a newcomer to the order, and its painfully obvious that he doesn't really buy into any of this nonsense. In fact, I can't tell what the hell his objective is, it seems like he's just an extra skilled thug who likes to kill. From what we can infer he definitely isn't programmed with The System, and clearly isn't a believer. It baffles me that he could even be considered a candidate for Avenging Angel to an ancient religious order, he's such a short-sightedly-thinking goof.
But Jean Paul Valley's character helps overshadow the minor shortcomings of the Order, as he's beginning to get a handle on his unstable personality. The lines between Azrael and Jean Paul Valley aren't blurring yet, but they are starting to meet. Valley has befriended amicable alcoholic Brian Bryan to help keep him grounded. Brian is adamant that he was a terrible psychiatrist when he was a professional, but its clear that his presence alone is having a positive effect on Jean Paul.
In Conclusion: 4/5
It's not the perfectly sculpted gemstone the first issue was, but it's still a damn great issue. Azrael's spent most of his career as a partial antagonist being stung along like a puppet and fighting the strings, but he's always been flailing wildly. Now he's actually grabbing the strings and following them to the source so he can cut them there. I can't wait to see where it leads.