The Dark Rider’s tale is one of tragedy and cold-blooded murder. But how did he go from mild-mannered time traveler to the deadliest vampire the Old West has ever known?

The Steam Man #2 continues the odd journey of the steam-driven robot, and its chase of the Dark Rider. The second issue is a change when compared to the first. While that one focused more on the Steam Man himself and its crew, outside of a few early pages, this issue has a heavier focus on the Dark Rider, and how he became who he is. I’ll leave the details of that out of this review to keep it spoiler free.

The panels and pages where the Steam Man and its crew are drawn have a much warmer atmosphere. That’s mainly due to the use of more vibrant color. However outside of those pages, the color scheme is much darker. Of course given the fact that this issues focus on the Dark Rider’s origin, that does make sense.  However there are some “bright” spots in the Dark Rider’s origin, which manage to make a nice balance between the light and dark colors used.

Story: Mark Alan Miller and Joe R. Lansdale  Art: Piotr Kowalski
Story 8.0 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Read

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review