With "EGOs" #2, Stuart Moore and Gus Storms's comic has officially shifted for me from "strange" to "strange and charming." It's still a slightly bizarre comic, full of all sorts of crazy ideas and settings. But while the first issue felt like the big ideas were overwhelming everything else a bit, "EGOs" #2 has just the right balance to fully hook readers.

There's something oddly appealing about the setup of "EGOs," where in the future a former Earth Galactic Operative reforms the EGOs team with disguised illegal clones of himself to try and stop a sentient galaxy that had been defeated a quarter century earlier. And to think, that's just the first issue. Here, Moore lets readers see the first mission of the new "EGOs," as Deuce takes his clones out to try and stop Masse before entire solar systems (or worse) are destroyed.

The end result is strangely touching, even as things go wrong. Deuce's plan is an intriguing one; it's a great reconstruction of the "I can do anything on my own" attitude taken to an extreme level. Deuce is a good guy, but Moore isn't afraid to also make him arrogant and self-absorbed at the same time. Everything he's doing is the road paved with the proverbial good intentions, but at the same time you can also see how this can all go hideously wrong. It's the sort of hero that you don't often get in the lead role of a title, and I like this tarnished yet meaning-well lead that we have with "EGOs."

It doesn't hurt that Moore's basic ideas are also enthralling. Masse is a great villain (and I love that Deuce admits that they were too busy trying to save people to ever figure out Masse's motivation), but just about every single character and situation has a spark of "that's cool" embedded into its heart. Moore has come up with a lot of out-there ideas, and here it's handed to us at just the right level so you can appreciate the concepts without getting distracted from the overall story.

Storms' art is interesting, with a blocky style and a color palette that feels like it's bordering on watercolors. He's got a good sense of panel progression, with tight zoom-ins on people's features to provide good reaction shots, or to slowly pull out to reveal a surprise over time. I especially like his character design for the Fear, who even wrapped up in a spacesuit still comes across slightly creepy, doubly so once the Fear's power is activated. Every now and then there are some strangely stiff-looking expressions, but on the whole I enjoy I see.

"EGOs" #2 feels to me like the book has finished coming together, and that it's on a good path with lots of interesting stories ahead. If you were on the fence after the first issue, definitely stop in for a second helping. With no "Legion of Super-Heroes" right now, this is a more than good substitute for science fiction superheroics.