“Battlepug†can be called Mike Norton’s magnum opus. It’s cleverly super silly, fun and the characters steal the show. Readers expect the same from “Volume 2,†but all the fun that was had in the first is but a speck on a wall.
In this volume, the Warrior and the Lunatic find a girl inside of the chests the bandits had. The girl turns out to be Bryony, a foul-mouthed mage, who is the daughter of Margrave Braken of Leamhan. When our heroes arrive at Leamhan, they find it under attack by Braken’s captain.
The super hilarious and silly premise of the first volume takes a back seat to more serious storytelling. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t any hilarity to be had. The little hilarity in this volume comes from a little girl with a sailor mouth, racial jokes and a breaking the fourth wall joke. The rest of the comic is full-on serious. It takes that magical something away that the first volume had.
With that being said the story here does reek of “been there, done that†syndrome with the heir to the throne being chased by a super bad who wants total domination. That’s not to say that it is all terrible. Norton does keep it interesting enough to want to see what happens in the end. This is especially true in that his ability to write strong characters is this comic’s saving grace. You have to love these quirky characters that seem too comedic to be real but are charming enough to love.
“Battlepug Volume 2†may not be as funny as Volume 1 and may come off as cliché, but strong writing and characterization is what keeps this volume from suffering from sequel stagnation. The absurd hilarity needs to return in order to keep this comic afloat and stand out from other comics.
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