Amanda McKee aka Livewire has been captured by military contractors and taken to an unknown facility. During her time as a “guest” at the facility, Livewire is implanted with a chip at the base of her brain. The chips function is to shut her powers down and feed off of the electricity of the brain. Amanda finds a way to escape but doesn’t know where to go or who to turn to.

Livewire #2
Written By: Vita Ayala
Art By: Raul Allen and Patricia Martin
Published By: Valiant Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 1/23/2019

Amanda McKee (aka Livewire) has been captured by military contractors and taken to an unknown facility. During her time as a “guest” at the facility, Livewire is implanted with a chip at the base of her brain. The chip’s function is to shut her powers down and feed off of the her brain’s electrical output. Amanda finds a way to escape but doesn’t know where to go or who to turn to for help.

As with the first issue, writer Vita Ayala crafts a story with very personal stakes for Amanda. This book shows the heroine go through various methods of torture before having her powers stripped away by a device that may end up killing her. It’s in stories like these where readers start to connect with these characters on a personal level. Ayala asks the reader “What would you do if you were in this situation? Would you roll over or would you fight?” Well, Livewire is a fighter. Still, she has a lot to overcome before her situation gets better. While these are the highlights of this book, there are still some issues when it comes to the writing. The first issue being how over the top the villains seem in this book. They come off as a bit cartoony, which makes things less than believable. The second thing that I noticed was the device that blocks Amanda’s powers. It looks like something out of the movie Upgrade and essentially does the reverse of what was in that movie. While this is an interesting concept to introduce to the Valiant Universe, it is not introduced well in this story.

The art by Raul Allen and Patricia Martin in this issue is wonderful and does a fine job of setting the tone of the story. Every panel is a delight to look at, from the small character moments Amanda gets, to the fast paced and brutal action sequences, there is a lot to unpack. Allen and Martin get to showcase Amanda without her powers in a no holds barred fight that will have the reader feeling every single hit. These two artists are a solid choice for this series and I look forward to seeing what is next.

Despite the flaws with the writing, Livewire #2 is a very solid second issue and starts to set up the overall arc for the series.

3.75 Fighting Amandas out of 5