Suicide Risk #2

"Grudge War," Part One
written by Mike Carey
art by Elena Casagrande

Before Leo even comes to, he begins to forget his family.  It's like a dream with fuzzy details, but the confusion is telling and, as it turns out, frightening.  But Dr. Maybe was right; his powers are strong, very dangerously strong.  The superhero physics of his condition aren't yet clear—unsurprising since he's just begun to learn his own abilities—but Leo feels the world like a puppet-master and with the slightest effort can twist it to his purpose.  He very well could be the most powerful person in Carey's world of wildly proliferating superpowers.

But now Leo's got a secret that he's keeping from his family, if not from his injured and sedated partner, and already the lie is beginning to fray those relationships.

"So I dodged that one, because my wife trusts me and doesn't want to hurt me.  Great, huh?  I bet this is how adulterers feel" (Suicide Risk #2: 5). 

Leo's guilt is only mildly redeeming.  He's a good person, but his impulsive risk-taking has jeopardized both himself and his family...and, if Dr. Maybe's premonitions are well-founded, perhaps the rest of the world.  He remains, however, an excellent cop, one that should probably have already been promoted to detective.   He slyly tracks down Voiceover's partner, a jack-ass of a junior high counselor named Anne Paxton, though he once again lies to his wife about why he's going to L.A.  He's also caught the scent of the powers brokers from the alley, and if nothing else Leo's steely determination in the face of any danger makes him a formidable rival for any adversary.

Perhaps most importantly, though, is Leo's quick glimpse of a beautiful, gold-eyed, tattooed woman named Aisha in his dreams.  And she seems to know something about—and perhaps is responsible for—his powers:  "Even if they killed you, I'd dive in after you and pull you back.  It would take a lot more than death to—" (15).  Wherever else Suicide Risk might be heading, it seems to be aimed straight at her.