Adler 2 featured image Reviews 

“Adler” #2

By | March 13th, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

With a burgeoning cast of characters and ever-unfolding plot, “Adler” #2 staggers beneath the weight of its own sprawling ambitions, becoming derivative in the process. (Warning: may contain minor spoilers.)

Cover by Butch Guice

Written by Lavie Tidhar

Illustrated and Colored
by Paul McCaffrey

Lettered by Simon Bowland

After uniting some of the most famous heroines of the Victorian age including Jane Eyre, Miss Havisham and Marie Curie, Irene Adler must finally come face-to-face with Sherlock Holmes’s greatest nemesis, Moriarty! World Fantasy Award winning writer Lavie Tidhar and TMNT artist Paul McCaffrey present an alternate history of the greatest literary characters of the 19th Century in the vein of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!

Film director Alfred Hitchcock famously called the object that motivates fictional characters to do whatever they do, thereby setting the plot in motion, the MacGuffin. Notable examples include the Holy Grail, the One Ring to rule them all, and of course, the Infinity Stones. In “Adler,” we simply have papers. So far, we don’t really know why these particular papers are so bloody important – much less what they contain – but clearly everyone wants them. Ironically, for Hitchcock, that was precisely the point. “The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after,” he said, “but the audience don’t care.”

Importantly, as Hitchcock further elaborated, even though the audience doesn’t necessarily need to understand the MacGuffin’s actual purpose or technical function, they do need to feel invested in the characters’ relentless quest to get it. Equally important is the MacGuffin’s metaphorical nature. Ultimately, the object in question is merely a means to an end. By acquiring the MacGuffin, each character truly believes they will attain their larger objective – fame, love, wealth, total world domination – or some other intangible goal that motivates them to act in the first place. Consequently, the MacGuffin itself is beside the point. Rather, it’s how the MacGuffin helps the character achieve their goal that is of prime importantance. The MacGuffin merely serves as a focal point for their desire.

Herein lies the key weakness of “Adler” #2. Everybody is scheming, double-crossing and conspiring to get something, except for the titular heroine Irene Adler and her new bestie, Jane Eyre. Clearly they’re both intelligent, strong, badass women, but they seem to be stuck in a story that isn’t really their own, incessantly overwhelmed by a cavalcade of minor players.

The first issue introduced no less than seven characters. Incredibly, this chapter doubles down, adding another fourteen. There’s a modicum of action sprinkled throughout the book, including some impressive hand-to-hand combat from Jane and a grisly murder in the royal box during Adler’s aria, but in the end it feels like the only point is to keep assembling the seemingly endless rogues’ gallery. Honestly, it pretty much feels like we’re watching the curtain call before the play has even begun.

Visually, Paul McCaffrey’s illustrations and colors are generally strong. His eye for period details and subtle flourishes is especially satisfying. Imaginative costuming and carefully curated accessories consistently feel spot-on, giving the characters depth and nuance that may be otherwise lacking. I have no idea if McCaffrey’s choices are historically accurate, but they’re too good to be trifled with, not to mention great inspiration for cosplay. The aesthetic is just short of Steampunk, but it definitely leans that way; a version of Victorian Europe that we all want to be true.

Intriguingly, many of the characters that would seem to have lesser roles also tend to feature the most interesting designs. Whereas Adler and Jane sometimes blur together, mainly distinguished by their wardrobe and different hair color, Rogana, Queen of the Beggars, and Belle, Queen of the Harlots, are strikingly different. Similarly, at first glance Rupert of Hentzau and the man who goes by Jack seem to be one and the same, despite their alleged difference in age. Inspector Lestrade, Paddy Doyle and Dr. Roylott, on the other hand, are each very distinct and unique. There are a ton of names to keep straight, but not nearly as many faces.

In terms of color palette, other than a brief flashback, the whole book takes place at night, somewhat constraining McCaffrey’s choices. He rises to the challenge, however, with a dynamic mixture of soft yellow interiors and blue-grey exteriors. The lighting sometimes feels a bit overly consistent – as when two back-to-back exterior scenes set in different locations run together confusingly – but the characters feel alive and their environments look realistic. McCaffrey’s effective use and intuitive sense of light and shadow give his scenes a wonderful three dimensional quality that makes you want to savor and return to your favorite panels.

Ultimately, as a concept, “Adler” can’t quite escape gravitational pull of the iconic characters and stories it hopes to reimagine. While it strives to reinvent, mashup, and pay homage to some of the most enduring, captivating heroes and villains in all of popular fiction, it sometimes feels derivative, muddled and gimmicky. It’s a delicate balancing act to remix classic plots and seminal tropes, much less tinker with genre-defining characters. Here, it’s a bit unclear how much we’re supposed to know about the characters and stories as they were originally written and how much we’re supposed to ignore our preconceived ideas while embracing these new archetypes.

Final Verdict: 6.8 Wonderfully realistic period illustrations, great attention to detail and beautiful colors can’t quite overcome a parade of new characters and a protagonist who lacks a clear personal objective in “Adler” #2.


John Schaidler

EMAIL | ARTICLES