So Jailbait has run off and Damage is trying to make it seem as though she is still around in an effort to protect her from his enemies. Enter Annie, a girl he rescues that is now passing as Jailbait while Damage tries to find Jailbait. Jailbait eventually gets rescued but Damage is really trying to get her to leave him be and go into the straight life. Unfortunately Annie's family has been destroyed by a gang of skin head Nazi's who have convinced themselves they are the Plutonian's chosen ones. In the end Annie becomes the new Jailbait and her and Max are looking for the skinheads home base so they can figure out who has spilled Max's vulnerability secrets.

I was definitely sad to see the original Jailbait go. I was hoping we could watch her and Damage try and figure out who they are in relation to each other a little while longer, however it looks like that is not going to happen. I do like Annie and it feels like this is safer for Damage b/c she is a lesbian but Damage's closing statements were absolutely right, she is definitely hiding out in Jailbait's life until she can deal with losing her family and all the other things that have just happened to her.

( )

So Jailbait has run off and Damage is trying to make it seem as though she is still around in an effort to protect her from his enemies. Enter Annie, a girl he rescues that is now passing as Jailbait while Damage tries to find Jailbait. Jailbait eventually gets rescued but Damage is really trying to get her to leave him be and go into the straight life. Unfortunately Annie's family has been destroyed by a gang of skin head Nazi's who have convinced themselves they are the Plutonian's chosen ones. In the end Annie becomes the new Jailbait and her and Max are looking for the skinheads home base so they can figure out who has spilled Max's vulnerability secrets.

I was definitely sad to see the original Jailbait go. I was hoping we could watch her and Damage try and figure out who they are in relation to each other a little while longer, however it looks like that is not going to happen. I do like Annie and it feels like this is safer for Damage b/c she is a lesbian but Damage's closing statements were absolutely right, she is definitely hiding out in Jailbait's life until she can deal with losing her family and all the other things that have just happened to her.

( )

So Jailbait has run off and Damage is trying to make it seem as though she is still around in an effort to protect her from his enemies. Enter Annie, a girl he rescues that is now passing as Jailbait while Damage tries to find Jailbait. Jailbait eventually gets rescued but Damage is really trying to get her to leave him be and go into the straight life. Unfortunately Annie's family has been destroyed by a gang of skin head Nazi's who have convinced themselves they are the Plutonian's chosen ones. In the end Annie becomes the new Jailbait and her and Max are looking for the skinheads home base so they can figure out who has spilled Max's vulnerability secrets.

I was definitely sad to see the original Jailbait go. I was hoping we could watch her and Damage try and figure out who they are in relation to each other a little while longer, however it looks like that is not going to happen. I do like Annie and it feels like this is safer for Damage b/c she is a lesbian but Damage's closing statements were absolutely right, she is definitely hiding out in Jailbait's life until she can deal with losing her family and all the other things that have just happened to her.

( )

So Jailbait has run off and Damage is trying to make it seem as though she is still around in an effort to protect her from his enemies. Enter Annie, a girl he rescues that is now passing as Jailbait while Damage tries to find Jailbait. Jailbait eventually gets rescued but Damage is really trying to get her to leave him be and go into the straight life. Unfortunately Annie's family has been destroyed by a gang of skin head Nazi's who have convinced themselves they are the Plutonian's chosen ones. In the end Annie becomes the new Jailbait and her and Max are looking for the skinheads home base so they can figure out who has spilled Max's vulnerability secrets.

I was definitely sad to see the original Jailbait go. I was hoping we could watch her and Damage try and figure out who they are in relation to each other a little while longer, however it looks like that is not going to happen. I do like Annie and it feels like this is safer for Damage b/c she is a lesbian but Damage's closing statements were absolutely right, she is definitely hiding out in Jailbait's life until she can deal with losing her family and all the other things that have just happened to her.

( )

Max Damage, the supervillain-gone-good, is faced with his first serious moral dilemma that tests just how committed he is to his transformation into superhero: a former nemesis has captured Jailbait, his underage former-lover. Will his devotion to her lead him to make a deal with the devil or will he have to sacrifice Jailbait for the greater good?

I'm still intrigued by Max Damage as a character, but, unlike volume 1, this wasn't quite a 4 star read for me. Maybe more of a 3 1/2. It does little to advance the plot, mainly because it creates a lull to explore Max Damage's seeming invulnerability and reveals his Achilles' heel. The longer Max stays awake, the stronger he becomes. Also, the more impervious his skin and tissue is to bullets, knives, all your standard "I'm going to kill this guy" type weaponry. However, it doesn't protect him from the mental effects of sleep deprivation as he has difficulty thinking straight and forming coherent sentences. The longer he goes without rest, the more dangerous he becomes--basically, without sleep, he's like a punch-drunk armored tank.

It also provides the opportunity to swap out the real Jailbait, a 16 year old girl who is still obsessed with Max despite his declarations that they can no longer be together if he's going to be a bright and shiny superhero, with a more age appropriate and sexually incompatible (she's a lesbian) sidekick who won't offer temptation. The storyline that does this is pretty contrived, but one can see where this swap was necessary. While the interplay between Max and Jailbait was fun in volume 1, the joke of the whining teenager continuously making sexual advances on Max would have eventually become uncomfortable and called his own moral transformation into question. Even if he continued to reject her advances, what kind of good guy would allow an obviously immature, emotionally damaged kid to tag along into such dangerous circumstances--especially since his enemies are formidable and the world still sees him as a bad guy. The new Jailbait has issues of her own as she is seeking vengeance for the death of her family. Her agenda might eventually offer some conflict with Max and his desire to stay virtuous.

The art is another reason for my slight disappointment in this volume. There's a cartoonish quality to a story that deserves a more gritty realism. The tone set by the storyline and the one presented by the art don't mesh. Basically, the panels look like stills from Saturday morning cartoons in the 1990's. If the art had been more mature and more in keeping with story itself, this may have bumped it up to a 4 star rating.

All in all, this was a necessary volume as it clears up some unanswered questions in volume 1 about Max's abilities and background and, hopefully, sets the stage for some serious awesomeness in volume 3. ( )