The Wild, Wild West + Steampunk + Weird Western Tales + The X-Files = Rough Riders Volume 2: Riders on the Storm

Teddy Roosevelt assembles a famous collection of secret crime fighters to investigate a conspiracy and save The United States from evil anarchists. Combine the old world technology and tongue-in-cheek flavor of the old TV show The Wild, Wild West with a healthy dose of steampunk, add a dash of the "anything could happen, just go along with it" attitude of the old comic series Weird Western Tales, just a smidgen of X-Files-type conspiracy, and the result is a superior story that is very entertaining and fun.

Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders are now an elite group of (somewhat reluctant) government agents. There is Harry Houdini, Thomas Edison, boxer Jack Johnson, Annie Oakley, and New York gangster Edward "Monk" Eastman (I had to look him up - apparently he was quite famous and notorious in his time). After President McKinley is shot TR reassembles the group to assist in putting down a group of masked assasins overseen by a mysterious man in the shadows... Action, adventure, and intrigue ensue! Plus wisecracking, a lot of wisecracking amongst our heroes.

I loved this book! The art is great, the characters are fully formed, the whole thing makes for freewheeling fun. I particularly liked the interplay between Houdini and Jack Johnson who have kind of a buddy cop/bro-mance thing going on.

While this volume works very well as a standalone I got the definite sense that a few of the twists and surprises would have had far more impact if I had been familiar with the previous book.

*** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review Rough Riders Volume 2: Riders on the Storm

The Rough Riders are back together. After the assassination of President McKinley they have to work together with Roosevelt against Anarchy. The result is a fun steampunk adventure. There are some good twists in the mystery. The art is good and fits the story. Enjoy the ride

Rough Riders takes a bunch of famous early 20th century Americans and sends them on secret missions. It's a cross of Wild, Wild West and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. When President McKinley is shot, Teddy Roosevelt reassembles his team of Thomas Edison, Harry Houdini, Annie Oakley, the boxer Jack Johnson, and Monk Eastman, one of the first New York gangsters. A group of guys running around in plague masks calling themselves the Anarchists are responsible and the rough Riders need to wipe them out before they destroy the country.

The book is a lot of fun. Patrick Olliffe is one of the more underrated artists working in comics today. I've liked his art since his days on Untold Tales of Spider-Man back in the 90's. He captures the likenesses of the characters perfectly.

Even though there had been several books between me experiencing Rough Riders Vol 1 and Vol 2, I found myself quickly remembering how much I liked some of the characters, and laughing at the dialogue. And, of course, anticipating a certain one's return - which I was given rather swiftly. However, unfortunately, I feel like this one had a serious case of try-too-hard-itis going on. While I loved a lot of the action and the witty repartee between Annie and the rest of the Rough Riders was awesome, the repeated twists and turns of the plot had me sighing.

My main problem with Rough Riders, Vol 2: Riders on the Storm were the parallels to America today. I read to escape, so finding myself plunging into a version of our current situation had me wrinkling my nose. And from a certain word to the characters that were obvious stand-ins for some of our politicians in office today, it was impossible to not see the similarities. However, the dialogue between the Rough Riders about democracy, anarchy, and frustration with the system was very plainly put and easy to relate to. And the end of this issue, well, let's just say it was believable as well. So while I didn't like that aspect of things, I still appreciated how the writer laid things out.  I do want to comment on a lot more than I currently am, simply because I lack the skill to get my point across.

The other thing is that while I can suspend quite a lot of belief in logic and abilities in search of a good story, Rough Riders Vol 2: Riders on the Storm, just had a few too many cases where I felt like it was pushing the envelope of realism a bit too far. There was a scene in particular involving one of the characters and four horses that had me rolling my eyes.

My favorite line comes from Roosevelt in the first issue (#8) of Riders on the Storm. It's just an awesome insult.

"For a civil war veteran, I found age and fear had given him the spine of a chocolate eclair."


As for the individual issues themselves, while I liked the The Big Burn (#8), Maiden of the Mist (#12) was the stand-out winner for me. Mostly because I love Annie, in case I haven't mentioned that three times already. Strange Days (#13) was my least favorite of the bunch. Given the way Strange Days ended things, I can't say that I would be interested in picking up any more volumes from the Rough Riders' series. 

Overall, just can't recommend this volume, sorry. It had it's high points, but not enough to make it worth spending money on.

When President McKinley was shot, Teddy Roosevelt called the Rough Riders back into harness 3 years after their first adventure in Cuba. Not everyone wanted in on the hunt of the conspiracy behind the assassination of the President, but TR is a very persuasive fellow. And what a conspiracy it is with strange costumes, a Latin motto, and links back to Europe via American co-conspirators. The question to ask at the end is "Was there a deeper conspiracy at play?" Read and make up your mind!

Much better than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but when little is worse, that doesn't say much. Very forgettable.

Wow what a great way to continue the series. I love how it deals with history with a mix to it. There is so much action and adventure. I love how these group of people are so different but they end up working so well together. It makes for such a great series. I really enjoyed this volume. I feel it was filled with some twists and turns. The ending was a nice twist. I can't wait to see how things are going to continue in volume 3. I do hope this comic ends up becoming more popular.

When a secret cabal tries to take over the world in the late 1800s/early 1900s by fronting the anarchist movement, it takes someone like Theodore Roosevelt to gather an elite unit of famous/semi-famous commandos to stop them. And apparently it’s for the second time, though I haven’t read the first volume.
When a story starts right off with the assassination of McKinley, it’s normal to wonder if Teddy might be behind it. I didn’t know Jack Johnson; considering he was a boxer, that’s not surprising. All the other characters are familiar. . . well, not Monk. Some of the tech is steampunk, but the eye scanner goes way beyond that. (Ah, got it. Again, didn’t read the first volume.) Annie Oakley is drawn much more attractively than in real life, but then that was the usual in the early days of cinema.
I’m not going to give you the context to this, because it’s just as delicious. When Edison screams, “I’m a national treasure!” the only reply can be, “We should drop you (off the train) just for saying that.” Yep, this just plays into everything I hate about Edison. This is also why Tesla is more often featured in fiction. . . and why I loved the moment when he mistook the priest for an admirer. That goes double for the surprise villain at the end.
“You couldn’t handle this even if I came with directions.” Okay, I officially love this Annie Oakley, especially when she ogles the guys as they strip and still beats them swimming.
Totally unbelievable for so many reasons, but enjoyable.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

'Rough Riders Vol. 2' by Adam Glass with art by Patrick Olliffe takes historical figures and turns them into a kind of super team. I had a great time reading this.

What do you get when you team up Teddy Roosevelt, Jack Johnson, Annie Oakley, Thomas Edison and Harry Houdini? Something that in less deft hands might have been merely mediocre. Here they are out to solve the murder of President McKinley, and being chased by figures in Venetian plague doctor masks.

I am new to the series with this volume, but I had no trouble jumping right in. There are some steampunk type elements to the story, but they aren't overwhelming and actually enhance the story instead of trying to over-style the world. I like the different characters and the strengths they bring to the team. The issue of racism is touched on as two of the characters have felt it in their lives.

The art by Patrick Olliffe is pretty good. These historical figures are given physiques like superheroes, but it's in keeping with the story. The covers for these issues are included and they are all very striking.

I really enjoyed reading this and I think it struck all the right balances of story and art. Something happens to one of the main characters and it isn't really explained, but I assume that is for a future story.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Squeeeee! This was so much fun. Looking forward to the next adventure. And, is it wrong that I really enjoy a hunky Teddy Roosevelt? Absolutely love the artwork in this series. So much action conveyed in the drawings.

This was a fun leisure reading which I read during the long Thanksgiving weekend. I enjoyed this second volume more than the first one. Rough Riders is a comic series that is part alternative history, part steampunk and part sci-fi. As a fictional alternative history it tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt who assembled a team of other historical figures in the late eighteen hundreds to confront secret threats and dangers to the United States and the world.
This particular story takes place three years after the story in volume one. The United States president William McKinley has just been assassinated. Which means then Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt will become the twenty sixth president of the United States. But before he becomes president Teddy assemble his Rough Riders secret team to investigate whether there is a greater conspiracy is involved with the murder. As they investigate they discover there is a lot larger conspiracy than they can imagine. I love the unexpected twists and turn in the story. They were ones that made me think, “Wow, that’s a deeper conspiracy behind the conspiracy!”
Like the previous volume I enjoyed this book for the historical references that shapes the plot of the story. There’s the assassination of McKinley and the fact that Roosevelt and McKinley were quite distanced. There’s also the fear of that time of anarchists operating underground. What made me like this particular story more than volume one is that the enemies were believable; I guess I’m not too big of a fan of aliens story which we saw in volume one. Also while volume two has less pages than volume one I thought volume one laid a lot of the foundation of how the teams are assembled which allowed more space in volume two to deal with the actual missions. Plus you also already know the history between the characters that began in volume one.
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Aftershock Comics, Diamond Book Distributors and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I am greatly enjoying the Rough Riders series. Volume 1 gave us quite a quirky assemblage of characters and characterizations combined with a fun fantastical steampunk universe. The historical facts are there but reinterpreted in an intriguing way. As well, the personalities of the historical characters are accurate but ramped up to make for a much more adventuresome story. It's obvious that the author/illustrators are are having a blast and it shows through in the exuberance of the storyline and artwork. Rough Riders 2 compiles the full second story arc.

Story: President McKinley has been shot and Teddy Roosevelt grapples with what it means for him in his position of Vice President. To protect the president, he calls in his band of Rough Riders: Annie Oakley, Thomas Edison, Monk the Gangster, Houdini, and Jack the champion boxer. They uncover a plot that stretches across the entire US - and what at first looks like anarchists soon blossoms into something much more deadly.

The story continues smoothly from the first volume: Annie doesn't realize she is something more than human now, Jack and Houdini's friendship grows stronger, Roosevelt still lone wolfs a lot,and no one trusts Edison. New characters such as Hearst add to the flavor but also create some fun red herrings and we see the return of Monk as a more central character.

Historically, I love all that we get here. From Hearst's yellow journalism to McKinley's assassination, the author creates some fun backstories to events of the era. The result is a lot of twists and turns coupled with actual history culminating in a finale so over the top as to be incredibly amusing - by the end, you'll never believe where the story could go!

If this had been told too earnestly or with too much a slavish attention to historical accuracy, it would never have worked. But this American "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is all the more fun for how the characters are written and their rivalries and camaraderie. It's something that couldn't be achieved with the British ensemble but is all the more rewarding for its very American heart.

The illustration work is fun and tells the story well. There was probably too much a reliance on repeated motifs (e.g., the 'reflection of the scene in the pupil of the main character" got old fast and was done too often) but I had to appreciate how the panels were set up and the bright and over-the-top steampunkish color schemes.

In all, I liked this volume even better - and look forward to #3 next year. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

More steampunk secret history, this time based around the assassination of McKinley - the US president who got shot yet still doesn't make the cut in terms of memorability. From the plague doctor masks with vaguely techie bits, to the ludicrous twist, it's a farrago of clichés, and the characters with two dimensions are the lucky ones - but for reasons I can't pin down, I would probably still read Volume 3.

An action-packed, entertaining history lesson that all began with an assassin's bullet that claimed the life of President William McKinley. A shot heard round the world. It brought out the toughest and best of our nation's former Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, as he stepped into the shoes of President of the United States. Served up steaming hot, this well-written narrative brought together some of America's legendary figures: Thomas Edison, Annie Oakley, Harry Houdini and Jack Johnson. The Rough Riders. All hand-picked to unite together for a single cause. Easier said than done.

This ARC was received from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Gratitude sent to Diamond Book Distributors - Aftershock Comics for allowing this pre-release made available.