Review: The Rage Volume 2: Kill or Cure
Volume 2 begins with Fred’s point of view as he comes to after being knocked out by Amina’s back-up and finds himself surrounded by infected children hell bent on getting a piece of Fred - and I mean that in a non-sexual want-to-eat-you-alive kinda way. Fred escapes the room by falling out the window while covered in children and has to put a knife in the neck of one kid to save his own life.
As Fred drives away, we see him look back at the house and say, “Amina…” Looks like they were both surprised to see each other.
Back at camp, Fred is taken to the infirmary to get bandaged up. He’s given a precautionary shot of antibiotics as he explains to the nurse he is in the militia to see all the infected children dead. He did, after all, lose his two sons because of one of the infected. Leaving the infirmary, Fred overhears some of the militia management talking to “the contact”. RIght now, we don’t know who the contact is but, we do know that the contact is paying the militia to kill kids and now wants them to kill Bernadette Bouchelin, the right-wing catholic senator from volume 1 that was arguing to have the ban on new births lifted.
We return to Amina as she is dropped off by fellow members of the removal unit. Before she heads home, she uses a stolen ID card to look up some information. It looks like Amina is taking some interest in Senator Bouchelin as well.
The following day, Amina is on a mission at a detention center that used to be an amusement park and is told to stay by the helicopter with the supplies. Being the good soldier that she is, Amina leaves the helicopter in search of Theo and runs into the little girl we saw at the end of Volume 1. We learn her name, Irina Albo, and we her brother killed her parents before she got taken away to quarantine. Irina leads Amina under a rollercoaster where all the children are hiding and there they find Theo. Amina is able to convince the others that Theo has become active, even though he appears too young for it, and gets Irina to hide in a box to get her out as well. Unfortunately, the children removed from quarantine are driven to another location and Amina is forced to get back in the helicopter to head home. At least she was able to save Irina, who she takes back to her home where she runs into Fred.
Amina tells Fred that Irina is not infected and Fred tells her that he left the militia after seeing her and that he thinks the militia is working with parts of the government; trading infected children for equipment and weapons. Fred takes Amina to the hospital where children are taken after being removed from quarantine only to find the the children they just removed, with Theo included, never made it. Amina leaves the hospital just before her Captain arrives and she decides she needs to check out the lab where they are trying to develop an anti-rage vaccine. Fred drops Amina off at her home with Irina and drives away, but they have been followed by Amina’s Captain. Government forces crash through Amina’s window and Irina is put down with a tranquilizer dart before she can hurt anyone. Amina tells her Captain that the girl is not infected and appears to be completely immune to the rage virus. They are taken to a lab where they take blood samples from Irina and run some other tests on her.
Irina tells Amina that while they were taking her blood, she could see others looking down at her from above and leads her to an observation deck where they see doctors operating on the infected children as if they are lab specimens. They are spotted by the doctors and flee to the basement where Amina hopes to find Theo.
In the basement, Irina tells Amina that the infected children are not always angry and violent. It’s only because they can see and smell Amina, an adult, that they act that way. Irina walks over to a child in one of the basement’s cages and he calms down when she starts petting his head and even smiles a little at her touch. Once again, they are found by Amina’s Captain and they pull a lever to release all the cage doors. Irina points the captain out and unleashes a wave of infected children on the poor Captain who promptly runs away screaming.
As Amina opens the cages on every level, we see men in the building’s control room discussing what can be done to stop her. One suggests gassing the lower levels and the Captain reminds him that some of their own men are still down there and would be killed, not to mention they would also kill Irina, their best chance at finding a cure to this disease. At this point, we learn that this lab is working with Herod’s militia and isn’t trying to cure anybody or do anything about eradicating the disease; rather, their goal is the be the only source of healthy babies on the planet. As the doors to the basement are being sealed, the external alarm goes off and Senator Bouchelin arrives with Fred. Looks like Fred let the Senator know of the militia’s plans to have her killed and she is there to have the entire compound shut down.
The gas is being released and is forcing the infected children to higher levels of the building. The Senator arrives in the control room and orders that no child be harmed. No one has time to follow any of the Senators orders because, at that point, the control room is overtaken by the children and everyone in the control room is killed.
Amina is escaping with Irina and Theo as the Captain follows them out of the basement. Fred finds them just as the Captain catches up and snatches Irina away from Amina. Amina stops Fred from shooting the Captain but Irina commands Theo to kill him. Our last visual is of Theo being given a transfusion of Irina’s blood as Amina watches over him.
As a someone who has not read graphic novels before, I liked both volumes of The Rage so far. The concept is a pretty good one and, as a mother of three, I can sympathize with Amina’s position.- I’m curious if Irina can be around the infected children because she is a child herself or if she has some kind of control over them.
- The artwork is good. It’s really gritty and you can tell so much of what the characters are feeling by the expressions on their faces and it really adds a lot to the story.
