REVIEW: 'Two Moons' #1 by John Arcudi, Valerio Giangiordano, and Dave Stewart

 RUMBLE and B.P.R.D. writer JOHN ARCUDI is back at Image with rising star VALERIO GIANGIORDANO for an all-new ONGOING HORROR SERIES! 

This issue starts the long journey of a young Pawnee man named Virgil Morris - a.k.a. Two Moons.- fighting for the Union during the Civil War. When he is suddenly confronted with his shamanic roots, he discovers horrors far worse than combat as the ghosts of his past reveal the monstrous evil around him!

TWO MOONS #1

Writer: John Arcudi

Artist: Valerio Giangiordano, Dave Stewart

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: February 24, 2021

Cover Price: $3.99

Score: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

Adding to the independent comic landscape this week with a stellar debut is 'Two Moons' #1 from John Arcudi, Valerio Giangiordano, and Dave Stewart. Indies serve some of the most ambitious, unique, and complicated stories in all of comics. Superhero stories just aren't enough and what Image Comics offers here is something you won't see anywhere else. 

Beginning with a young Pawnee soldier named Virgil Morris, the titular Two Moons, who's fighting for the Union during a bloody Civil War. He's the lead character here which is refreshing and too uncommon for an Indigenous character to get top billing. It's also a precarious proposition when non-Native writers take on Native characters. However, Arcudi shows restraint here with some nuance in regards to the proud and capable Morris while also using the mysticism of his "shamanic roots" to provide some supernatural tension in the story. 

What's interesting to me in regards to the horror aspects of "Two Moons" is it seems unnecessary to conjure up fantastical monsters when the real horrors of war and prejudice have an unshakable and ingrained terror all their own. As wonderfully drawn and colored by Valerio Giangiordano and Dave Stewart, the detailed look at the cost of war to the human body is at once grotesque and sobering. The casualties, the maimed, the wounded, the suffering, are all brought into focus at one point which is refreshingly introspective in a genre that usually shows the violence without broader context or thought. The horrors of death and mutilation on the battlefield are unflinchingly portrayed which adds to the stakes and danger for Morris. It also adds perspective to what true violence is, raw and savage. The manifestation of the supernatural rings hollow by comparison. 

'Two Moons' is a remarkably well-told story set within the horrors of war as we follow the young Pawnee Union soldier through his journey. A journey that is intertwined between mysticism, bigotry, violence, and monsters of all kinds. It's devastatingly illustrated by Giangiordano with amazing craftsmanship and precision. 'Two Moons' is smart, bloody, and haunting.