Funny, action-packed, and silly as hell, Borderlands: Origins captures the spirit of the video game in comic form to tell the origin stories for the four main characters from the original Borderlands, leading up to the moment when they boarded Marcus’ bus. Issue #1 told Roland’s story, and in Issue #2, we move on to Lilith.
Lilith’s story starts with her at a young age to explain how she first awakened to her Siren abilities. This section of the issue was quite the let down, lacking the humor and sense of style of Borderlands. This section also lacks any kind of logic and replaces it with long-winded exposition that any fan of the games already knows and could be summed up in two quick sentences instead of half an issue. Lil’ Lilith bothered me, looking entirely too creepy as a child where she isn’t meant to be. Her character design is sound, but Padilla’s talents do not lie with drawing children.
Besides its relative length vs. substance, I’m not a fan of this first half, because there are so many other stories of Lilith that could have been told. She later alludes to her decision to split off on her own and head to Pandora. Why not tell that story, instead of delivering one long exposition that’s not really that interesting?
In the modern day, Origins #2 reinjects the issue with humor, bada–ery, and a lack of creepy children. Lilith holds her own in more ways than one and delivers a rant that made me so happy as someone who has endured being called pet names by strangers before and deserves the splash page it takes up. I wasn’t the biggest fan of how Lilith’s phase shift was portrayed in comic form, though the writers use it in some creative ways that wouldn’t be possible from the games, for which I applaud.
Overall, Origins #2 is about half as good as the first issue, but it delivers later on and wraps up much better. Looking ahead, I think we’re safe from artistically drawn creepy children for Mordecai and Brick’s stories . . . actually, I’d expect lil’ Mordecai and Brick to look creepy as all hell, so we’re good in either case.
