Barbaric #3

Barbaric #3

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Michael Moreci

Illustrated by Nathan Gooden

Coloured by Addison Duke

Lettered by Jim Campbell

Everything's gone to sh*t. But what else is new for a barbarian cursed to do good, who has to follow the commands of a bloodthirsty axe? It's just that today's a little worse. With Owen's back against the wall, and his enemies eager to chop him to bits, things are looking especially grim as the first arc of BARBARIC comes to a close.

I’m a little upset that this is a three issue arc and we’ll have to wait until some time next year for the next one to come out. Thi is just way too much fun and just as we’re settling into the book wham bam thank you Sam it’s over. If this weren’t as good a book as it is then I wouldn’t be as upset as I am but since the boys here have created and brought to life one hell of a book everything is up in the air. I do like how we become invested in these characters in such a short amount of time. The level of the writing here far exceeds any and all expectations and considering it’s Moreci I already expected a lot.

I’m a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development as seen through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continue to show facets of their personalities we weren’t aware of previously. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we are pulled into this in some mighty strong ways.

I do greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I love how we see the layers here with their characterisation, plot twists and unexpected moments that really add so much great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are phenomenal. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the attention to detail we see throughout the book is completely and utterly marvellous. We see some decent use of backgrounds here, though we could always use more, and how they are utilised to enhance and expand the moments. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. I love the creativity and imagination that we see throughout and that talking axe getting drunk on blood just kills me every time we see him, he really steals the show or moments we see his face. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work we see through the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really demonstrates a sublime eye for how colour works.

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This book is superb and it’s a solid good read, no not a solid gold read or even dancer. There are moments that we certainly don’t expect to see and it’s nice that we do and all things considered it’ll be nice for Owen to have someone to talk to other than the axe. Though let’s face it the axe is pure comedic gold baby. With some incredible writing and extraordinary characterisation wrapped in these interiors that are perfectly suited to the story Barbaric this is one series that we need oh so much more of!