Posted in: Comics, Image, Review | Tagged: action, cold war, image comics, Jordie Bellaire, kyle higgins, stephen mooney, the dead hand
The Dead Hand #3 Review: Deepening the Conspiracy
Frederick had an MI6 agent friend named Ellis, and Frederick was supposed to contact Ellis by now. Now Ellis wants to go to Mountainview and figure out what happened to his friend. Meanwhile, Harriet wants to know more about the Dead Hand. Carter and Renae have united the council to decide what to do after Frederick's incursion into Mountainview.
Dead Hand #3 continues to deepen the conspiracy of Mountainview while explaining some of the fundamentals of how this town works.
That last bit is nice, as everything about Mountainview is illogical. Now we know how they get supplies and dispose of trash, whether the citizens know that they're living in Russia, and who runs the town.
Ellis is an interesting new addition to the cast. He's not a generic spy, and he's not bound by duty like Carter or money and profit like Renae. He's something different and something dangerous.
The narration turns a bit more conversational in this issue, which as unexpected.
We get a little more time with Roger to see how he's developing, and that's a fairly chilling scene. There's also a cool extended fight with Ellis and other agents in the midpoint.
That fight scene is constructed and sequenced quite well. Stephen Mooney did a good job with it, but it does have a significant drawback. The scene is colored entirely yellow except for Ellis. I get the stylism of it, but it does make it difficult to discern the finer details of the sequence. Beyond that, Stephen Mooney and color artist Jordie Bellaire do a great job of bringing this comic to life. The detailing is impeccable, and the color art is well balanced and appealing.
Dead Hand #3 continues to draw the reader in with its elaborate, bizarre, and unnerving conspiracy as well as its diverse cast of characters. There are a lot of moving pieces, and you're made to want to see how it all fits together in the end. This one gets another recommendation. Check it out.