28 Days Later 2: Bend in the Road

Comic Info

28 Days Later #6 Variant Cover

Reprints 28 Days Later #5-8 (November 2009-March 2010).  Clint and Selena find Derrick is dying from illness and try to hide from the infected while searching for medication.  When they encounter a group of survivors led by a woman named Kate, Clint and Selena are sent on a mission to a nearby town and discover that in order to save Derrick, they might have to rescue Kate’s son Douglas as the infected move in.

Written by Michael Alan Nelson, 28 Days Later Volume 2:  Bend in the Road collects the next four issues of the series which is a spin-off of the popular films 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.  Following 28 Days Later Volume 1:  London Calling, the story takes place before the events of 28 Weeks Later.  The entire series was also collected in an omnibus edition.

I really enjoyed 28 Days Later…28 Weeks Later less so.  The movie really ramped up the zombie movie and made zombies scary again.  Fortunately 28 Days Later the comic book feels more thematically close to 28 Days Later rather than 28 Weeks Later.

Boom! Studios always pumps out these short, good looking collections.  I do wish the collections were a bit longer (though four issues do keep them at affordably priced collections).  This is my first entry to the 28 Days Later comic and I do feel a bit thrown by it.  I did not read the first collection and wish that the comic had provided a bit of backstory.

28 Days Later #7 Variant Cover

The first issue of this collection is a flashback issue.  The story presents how Clint and Derrick first were assigned to the rage infection story after a disastrous Middle East mission.  Derrick is revealed to have been taken prisoner and his attitude in the story is explained a bit in the issue.  I do like to see how the infection spread and how word of the infection was released.

The last issues of the comic continue the basic story and aren’t as interesting as the first issue but do contain more action.  It feels a bit redundant of 28 Days Later and the encounter with the military but it also goes show how Selena is being forced to trust again after the attack and attempted rape.

The art by both Marek Oleksicki who illustrates 28 Days Later #5, and Declan Shalvey who takes up 28 Days Later #6-8 is quite strong.  I find adaptations a tough sell in that the artists often have to recreate real actors and make them comparable to the film…only Selena is carryover so fortunately Shalvey has a bit more liberty.

28 Days Later 2:  Bend in the Road is an interesting comic and good for fans of either the movie or zombies.  I do recommend starting from the beginning because jumping into the series full force can be tricky and disorienting.  28 Days Later 2:  Bend in the Road is followed by 28 Days Later 3:  Hot Zone.

Related Links:

28 Days Later 1:  London Calling

28 Days Later 3:  Hot Zone

28 Days Later 4:  Gangwar

28 Days Later 5:  Ghost Town

28 Days Later 6:  Homecoming

28 Days Later:  The Aftermath

28 Days Later (2002)

28 Weeks Later (2007)