The Shadow Vol 2 #3
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Giovanni Timpano
Dynamite Entertainment
It’s never a great idea to read a comic which is mid-story arc in the title.
But this was ‘The Shadow’ and I love a good pulp tale so I took the chance.
The result was general disappointment.
This, as #3 in the story, seemed like at best it was a bridge issue; the kind where if you have been along for the ride you accept as needed to carry the story forward, but lacking a lot of action.
I could tell that some of the plot thread weaving here was likely needed for the larger storyline, but as a single issue it was rather pedestrian.
Now by nature pulp can be rather predictable, and that played through here too.
There is one scene where The Shadow shows up at a women’s place and is offered tea. He declines.
Now this might be telling a little, but I doubt readers will be shocked that the woman drinks the tea and dies. Shocked I was not.
Now to be fair, as I said I splashed into this one midstream, but unless the earlier issues were considerably better this is very average fare.
We Stand On Guard #3
Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Steve Skroce
Image Comics
The deeper we go into the great series the more reprehensible the Americans become.
In issue #3 writer Brian K. Vaughan has the invaders of Canada with a high tech torture cell, where a Canadian freedom fighter is plugged into a machine where she is forced to suffer the ‘feelings’ of being drowned in a vat of burning liquid. Talk about futuristic water boarding taken to the extreme.
The pain is real and she is forced to endure it over and over and over as the torturer tries to have her reveal the freedom fighters hidden base.
Knowing one of their own has been captured, members of the 2-4 must decide whether to abandon the base and all the weapons they have amassed, or stay knowing well their member might crack and they could face an attack at any time. The tension is palatable.
This series just gets better with every issue, although it would be nice to see a curveball soon. Not every American can be evil. There has to be one showing some humanity.
It wouldn’t hurt if a Canuck were a spy either.
No story should be completely black and white. The best aspects are usually in the areas of fray.
Still, a favourite series among current stuff being produced.
