The Midas Flesh #2

by Ryan North, Shelli Paroline & Braden Lamb

The Midas Flesh is the first series to come from BOOM!’s newest imprint, BOOM! Box and its first issue sold out leading people excited to check out issue two. With the first issue mainly setting up the overall concept of the story and introducing the main characters, this issue reveals a bit more plot and some back story for one of our main characters while introducing the villainous Federation.

This issue of The Midas Flesh solely concentrated on the present time following our team of exploring scientists who are investigating an uncharted world of solid gold and what may have caused such an event. This is creator Ryan North’s first creator owned series but you wouldn’t be able to tell by just reading The Midas Flesh. He does an excellent job of balancing out the serious and goofy tones that he’s learned writing Adventure Time. The pacing of this series so far has been incredibly spot-on by keeping the story moving smoothly even when using flashbacks or, in the case of this issue, introducing the Federation. This story and the characters within has so far been very entertaining to read and watch evolve.

The art of The Midas Flesh has really stood out with its bright tones and its almost cartoonish style. Personally, the art is very attractive to my eye and compliments both the serious and light-hearted playfulness of the story and the characters within. This artistic approach also is quite versatile for this story because it can capture both the futuristic sci-fi element of the present time but also capture the historic past of King Midas’ time. There is particular stand out art for the city that was turned to gold during a rain storm which I think the team of Paroline & Lamb captured quite well.  The art in The Midas Flesh is actually very fitting for the nature of story that is being told.

With only two out of eight issues released for The Midas Flesh there is still plenty of adventure to come. So far this series has been a fun adventure which can be a sometime rare occurrence with most comics being so gritty and over-violent for a more mature audience. When you hear the term “all ages” for some reason most people immediately think it’s a kids book that’s beneath them. However, The Midas Flesh is an all ages book that truly can be appreciated by reader of all ages.