Hailstone #3

Hailstone #3

ComiXology Originals/Stout Club 2021

Written by Rafael Scavone

Illustrated by Rafael De Latorre

Coloured by Wesllei Manoel

Lettered by Bernardo Brice

Did It Stare You In the Eye?

Ross learns on the hard way that finding out what's going on inside that military factory won't be an easy task. But when one of the missing persons suddenly reappears, Ross and Tobias find themselves with even more questions than answers, pushing them to concoct a plan to check, once and for all, what's been hiding in that place.

So far I am completely and totally enamoured with this series. I rather enjoy how much it engages the reader, for me it’s that big metal box with the modern lights and such on it that’s smack dab in the middle of nowhere during the Civil War. Where the Sheriff was investigating and got caught snooping around looks a lot more modern than anything else we’ve seen within these pages and that intrigues me. Also the Sheriff isn’t as young a man as he was and to see him traipsing about like he did gave me some newfound respect for the man but he’d better stop thinking himself as a cat or those nine lives are going to be over much faster than he’s prepared for.

I am loving 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 that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction, the actions of the characters as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is rather magnificent in how it continues to flesh these characters out. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we’re caught up in the drama and intrigue of it all and don’t want the issue to end.

I am very much enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and emerge anew. With the various avenues we’ve already seen open up and the new ones emerging, Mary’s return and the reveal, we see how more depth, dimension and complexity is added to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

I am really rather quite taken with the strength of the interiors here. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work that we is utterly astounding. I love how we see backgrounds being utilised, though there could be fewer empty backgrounds, and how they enhance the moments as well as 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 is fabulous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an exceptionally talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exceedingly well rendered.

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Lucy understands her husband quite well and while worries about him she knows the qualities that make him a good man and Sheriff. So she worries and keeps her eye out but I have to wonder if she’ll be brave enough to put her foot down sooner rather than later. With the heightened threats and consequences of the actions we see throughout this issue and what will lead into the next one the guys are doing precisely what an excellent series should be doing. Each issue is a bit better and stronger than the previous one and it’s building like a crescendo to reach its finale. When the high note is hit and the fat lady sings, when the dust settles will there be a town, a munitions factory and a native village still standing in the area?