Broken Frontier

While the book may not encourage you to go to New York, this issue might encourage you to check out this series.

New York is filled with dangerous alleyways and unscrupulous individuals, but it's not nearly as bad on the outside as it is on the inside. Demons and dark forces are truly at work in the city, and Detective Tom Whalen is finding out the hard way that things can always get worse.

Haunted City #2 is a decent introduction to the series; while it shouldn't be too hard to head back one issue and catch up, new readers should be able to hop right in with the synopsis and only half the issue apparently dedicated to the main plot, with the other half offering backstory. While the writing is proficient in letting new readers in, it likely stands stronger with the knowledge of the first issue behind it.

Art is something that can be judged on an issue-by-issue basis, and Michael Ryan does a decent job combining the normal dregs of New York City with the supernatural dregs, having threatening goons turning into werewolves, for one. He doesn't get too many chances with the female form this issue, but the last pages featuring Morrigan show that he works as well with the beauties of the world as the horrors.

Haunted City #2 seems to get more right than wrong, but is only just a piece of a larger puzzle that needs to be assembled in full to paint a clearer picture.