East of West: The Apocalypse Year Two Hardcover – 28 Mar. 2017

As with the first volume this is a brilliant book, I thought a lot of reviews said the plot was hard to follow...personally I think it's dead easy to follow but I'm reading these big volumes not the smaller versions so maybe over months and with more comics its harder to remember who's knifing who in the back? Better to assume they all are ALL THE TIME.This volume mostly follows what I'd call the crowd favourites a tad more, more of John Freeman and the Southern dude. Less of the horsemen and less of death/mao. Personally I don't like the Mao stuff at all. It seems a jammed in 6th party when the other 5 parts are all part of the US history. I think the current "China 2nd biggest economy" has brought them into the book where for me a natural 6th party would be Mexican or Hispanic in some way...Resurgent Aztec Mexico would make more sense than an off shoot Chinese faction that somehow got passed Imperial Japan. But maybe I'm biased as Mao seemed untouchable and therefore her parts become boring because you don't ever feel she's in danger.Babylon adds a good twist to the story, it's very clever how the balloon is written to often be truthful and they play really well against each other. Their parts seem like they take the most time to write as they're playing mind chess against each other all the time.

Love the story - this book is an awesome collection, highly recommend

excellent

The plot thickens further in Year Two of East of West. Hickman is creating a fascinating and complex universe in his usual style and I think the artwork of Nick Dragotta is some of the best to be seen in comics currently. Between the two of them, they create some amazing, dramatic moments.If you're reading this review, you're probably already familiar with the series but if not, I highly recommend going back and starting ASAP.