Battlecats Vol.3 #3

Battlecats Vol.3 #3

Mad Cave Studios 2021

Created & Written by Mark London

Illustrated by Michael Camelo

Coloured by Tekino

Flatted by Ricardo Castillo

Lettered by Miguel A Zapata

Kelthan continues his journey through the waters of Valderia. Meanwhile, Natharien and Artain begin their journey back from the Oracle The Blood Moon in the sky is beginning to have strange effects on the felines of Valderia, so Queen Adastril sends the leaderless Battlecats to take down the Blood Priests responsible.

I am absolutely loving this arc! The King may be dead but thanks to circumstances beyond their control the Cats are now having to face things, events and people from their pasts in order to overcome and save the Kingdom from their Kings murder. I think this kind of characterisation that is so closely tied into how the story moves forward and is essential to the story itself is immaculately rendered. It really is nice to see how much better that Mark has gotten as a writer since the series began and how he’s managed to grow alongside these characters and this world.

I adore the way that this is being todl. 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 throughout the issue is utterly phenomenal thanks to how we see the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. Their personalities really do get a chance to truly shine here and it’s absolutely wonderful to see. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the further and deeper we are pulled into the lives of these characters.

How we see this being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificent to see. I really like how the layers which we see opening up new avenues and going deeper into avenues that have already been opened and all of this adds to much more depth, complexity and dimension to the story. I will say that the introduction of Axan had so much potential and that we see him and his actions this issue only strengthened that so I’m not a fan of what we see here. Though how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely lovely. The creativity and imagination that we see is so on point as that Sharktopus or Polstris is a prime example of this. I love the imagery here and how we see backgrounds being utilised throughout the book to enhance and expand the moments. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of sale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story, the utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a true understanding of how colour works and the unusual colours and blends make for some darn fine interesting moments.

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This is a great series folks. The depth and range of the storytelling will surely surprise you with how well the characters are thought out and executed. Their personal stories are intriguing and tie into the bigger picture in some wondrous ways that help further both the characterisation and the story arc itself. With some truly incredible writing and such intricate characterisation that’s wrapped up in these beautiful interiors the story is brought to life exceptionally well.