Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: abbott, boom studios, detective, Jason Wordie, noir, saladin ahmed, Sami Kivelä

Abbott #3 Review: The Reporter Detective Series Continues to Near but Miss Greatness

Elina Abbott is faced with a bizarre centaur creature intent on running her down under its massive weight. She narrowly escapes it. She returns to her job the next day, but her editor-in-chief give her a fluff piece after he discovers that Abbott has been attacked again.

Before going to the museum that is the focus of her puff piece, she meets up with her mystic friend whom gives her slightly less cryptic information about what she is experiencing.

As has often been the case with this series, Saladin Ahmed's Abbott comes so close to genuine greatness in its third issue. However, it makes too many missteps and stops just short of being genuinely good.

Two of its recurring problems return: text saturation and unnecessary expositive dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue in this comic, and a weird amount of it is reestablishing things the comic has told us before. Characters with an already-established relationship remind us that they're friends, the editor-in-chief repeats that he genuinely cares about Abbott, and that sort of thing.

Worse yet, Abbott's reporter skills seem lacking when she seemingly ignores a big connection between the cases she's investigating and the university behind the museum she is reporting on. When the university brings a big lead for her, it comes off as entirely happenstance that she stumbled upon this big break.

It really sucks, because Abbott is a great lead. The comic has a great setting. Some moments work well, but the whole is held back by bad decisions.

Sami Kivela's artwork continues to hold together quite well over the course of the comic. The centaur looks both cool and creepy. The world is highly detailed and has great depth of field. Action is better displayed in this issue than past installments too. Jason Wordie's color art is oppressively bright when it needs to be and dark and mysterious at other times. This is a good-looking comic.

Abbott #3 is another frustrating issue of a book that could be truly great but falls short at pivotal moments. I can't outright say to stay away from this comic, but I can't recommend it either. If you've been enjoying it so far or the flaws I list don't seem like big killers, feel free to check it out. If neither of those are you give it a pass.

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