Fence #2 Review

Words by: C.S. Pacat/ Art by: / Johanna The Mad/ Colors: Joana Lafuente BOOM! Studios The disclaimer is that I know next to nothing about fencing other than that you have some type of sword, you wear protective gear like a helmet, and that #blackgirlmagic exists in that sport in the form of U.S. Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad. It has never been a sport I’ve been interested in and this is not me dissing it. On that same token, I was never big on figure skating. Why did I bring up skating? A friend convinced me to watch some anime titled Yuri!!! On Ice and even though I’m not a fan of sports anime… I was hooked. Sometimes you only need the right medium, you need only the right gateway medium to hook you. I missed issue one of Fence and, still curious, thought I’d read up so I could check out issue two… Can I say I feel like a fish looking at the worm on the hook and inching closer ever so slowly? The pacing of the first issue of Fence seemed a bit rushed with the timeskips. It failed to make me get behind Nicholas as a character, yet the creative team managed to pull off a fairly decent first issue. The pacing in this second issue works well with the introduction of several new characters and the setup for how our boys will operate from here on out (be skilled, beat him, join the team, beat the rival school—and not necessarily in that order). I’m more invested in this issue and hope the fencing scenes will prove to be elaborate enough that an amateur like myself can lose myself …