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A Blasphemy of Love
A Review of Second Coming Issues #1–6
A year-plus later, a new publisher, six issues in the can, and the top image search result for Mark Russell and Richard Pace’s comic Second Coming still shows the first issue cover with the Vertigo label it was intended to have before the book was dropped by DC and picked up by Ahoy Comics. Weird as it is for me to say about a book with a “What if Jesus was roommates with Superman?” pitch, Second Coming is a book that deserves to outlive both that tagline and the ridiculous controversy surrounding it. The hype aside, it’s still one of the best new books out there.
I had completely missed the faux outrage from the religious right and now wonder if the move from DC was meant to secretly save the book before the Vertigo imprint was discontinued completely. DC, which once published genuine mature titles, now only seems content to reserve its mature content for dark superhero takes. Second Coming is satirical, but it’s not a dark take on superheros. Neither is it a dark take on the story of Jesus.
The darkness comes when depicting the people who pervert his teachings, from the Roman empire to current day society. When it comes to…
