Martijn Form: 3.5 bullets
Matthew J. Brady: 3.5 bullets

Matthew: I don’t know about you, but this issue of the second Mouse Guard mini-series is late enough that I had trouble remembering what was going on with the story. Luckily, it wasn’t difficult to jump right back in and follow the adventures of my favorite little rodent warriors (sorry, Mice Templar, you’re just not doing anything for me). David Petersen might be spreading his story a bit thin though, since he has three different threads of the tale going on at once. The two bits about the groups who were separated while transporting medicine back to the city seem to get most of the focus, with the third bit about the goings-on back in Lockhaven suffering. I’m not sure what is happening with those characters.

Martijn: You’re right about remembering, I had the same problem. So I re-read issues #1 and #2 again. It was then that I noticed that I like my Mouse Guard hard cover a whole lot better then these floppies. There is just too little story development to really keep me interested and stay focused in this wonderful world Petersen is creating. And to be a real critic: Did you notice that every issue so far has a slightly different format and different printing paper? It’s just a detail, but it annoys me (haha).

Matthew: I don’t think I really noticed any change in paper, but I didn’t have the direct comparison to previous issues like you did. I did feel like I could connect with the story though, and I thought the two “major” threads balanced each other pretty well, with one team getting some time to talk while sheltering themselves from the cold and the other facing off with some bats in a tense confrontation. I found it to be a good mix of action and exposition.

By the way, I was excited to see some flashbacks to the earlier adventures of the legendary mouse hero the Black Axe. Even though they were limited to single panels, they indicated a rich history that Petersen has planned out for the series. I would love to see more, maybe in another Black Axe spinoff comic. What do you think?

Martijn: A spin off sounds nice, but if Petersen has a grand scale story in mind I feel that it going to be a very long wait to see its completion. And when I indicate long I mean Jeff-Smith’s Bone decade long. I think that I will switch to the trades instead of collecting the floppies.

Matthew: Yeah, that’s true. He’s slow enough just working on the main series.

As always, I’m loving Petersen’s detailed artwork. He pulls off the character work especially well, considering that the mice (and other creatures) look fairly realistic, rather than some sort of cartoony anthropomorphization, yet they still are very expressive and emotive. He mostly pulls this off by slightly altering the eyes; a subtle narrowing of those little eye-dots or a few lines indicating a furrowed brow speak volumes.

Martijn: Anthropomorphizations, ohh my god, with that word I won a family Scrabble game last week.

I think David Petersen is really good at creating an atmosphere that really fits children’s books and not so much comics. That said, I think that Mouse Guard being in a comic format is very admirable, and hopefully will shake things up in superhero comic land.

So we established that we both like the art, but to be a sour puss I find it hard to distinguish every mouse character. It slows down me reading this.

Matthew: I would agree that the characters aren’t especially distinctive, but that’s probably as much an issue with the writing as the art, and this might be related to the attempt to fit too much plot into the issue. Lieam and Celanawe (a.k.a. the Black Axe) are distinctive, and they play off each other well, so I didn’t have a problem with them. But the team facing off against the bats all seem like interchangeable warrior types. They do wear different color clothing though, so that’s one way to keep track.

Martijn: I was shocked by the way that one of the bottle medicine got broken, Petersen really dragged met into that little emotional scene. How about you Matthew? Any tears so far?

Matthew: It does add some drama, but I found it more to be a way to raise tension and add some importance to their mission. But I might have caught my breath when I noticed it.

Martijn: Petersen did a lovely thing with his art with the snow scenes in contrast to the scene in the bad cave. Especially the two page spread, where the word balloons dictate a beautiful reading rhythm.

Matthew: I agree, the snow scenes were very pretty, and the ice building up on the characters’ fur was very well-rendered, adding a palpable feeling of possible impending death by cold. It emphasizes the fragile nature of these tiny little mice trying to survive in a big, dangerous world. And yes, the bright whites and light blues of the snow make a great contrast to the darkness of the cave scenes. I liked Petersen’s depiction of the bats, which had very creepy, echoing speech patterns. That two-page spread you mention is awesome, and I also loved the action scenes. Petersen is really good at putting together exciting fights, and this issue is no exception.

Martijn: You mentioned that you didn’t like Mice Templar, but I’m liking that comic more and more, because it doesn’t have the same quality in art, but the story has more depth and a larger plot point. I think Petersen should work more on his plotting of the book.

Matthew: I would agree that Mice Templar seems to have a larger scope to its plot, but it seems like a normal fantasy-style book to me, in which mice (or rather basically human characters shaped like mice) go through the motions of a typical quest. Mouse Guard seems more unique to me, emphasizing that the characters are actual mice and focusing on their relationships with other members of the animal kingdom. And the art is nicer too. But to each his own, right?

Martijn: Yes, and I still hope this comic will do very well for parents to read to their children.

Matthew: Or their pet mice (or gerbils or hamsters). It would be some good escapism for them.

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