Heavy #3

Heavy #3

Vault Comics 2020

Written by Max Bemis

Illustrated by Eryk Donovan

Coloured by Cris Peter

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

When Bill and Slim's next job brings them face-to-face with a former Heavy gone rogue, Bill starts to realize that the Big Wait might not be everything it claims to be. But that mystery will have to be put on hold until he and his psychopathic partner deal with their next set of targets: every version of Slim throughout space and time.

I have to admit that this is kind of what I was waiting for. Bill is finally having enough of Slim and his behaviour while beginning to question the reality of his situation. Granted it doesn’t hurt that a Cyberpunk Lenny Kravitz, pure and utter genius by the way, is there to put more than a seed of doubt into his mind. Max surprised me with the opening here and how deep it is. That is some hardcore stuff to both write and go through and I’d imagine he went through it in order to write it this well. At this point I want to sleep with him and experience it for myself all that past heartache turned to joy as the one you love is infinitely more tender, gentle and worth it than you’ve ever had in the past or the by the one who took your virginity to begin with.

I am thoroughly enjoying 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 extremely well done. For something this Heavy that it is being told with such a charm and grace it is easy to see why Max has emerged as the multiple threat that he has, singer/song writer/composer and comics writer. The character development is interesting for all the reasons I have mentioned and then some. We finally learn more about Kyle this issue and that’s well you’ll have to decide if that’s good or bad. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we are treated this really mental ride.

I like how we see the structure of the book and how the layers continue to weave their way through with new ones emerging all the time it really is quite properly superb. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow beautifully.

The interiors here are really interesting to me as well. The linework is great and I like how we see the varying weights being utilised to showcase the detail work. The creativity and imagination on display here is marvellous and it comes at such great moments that you don’t expect when they occur. I would like to see more backgrounds in play but that’s my aesthetic so take that for what you will. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well. I like the colour choices that we see and how the various hues and tones within the colours are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work that we see.

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This is a really good book. Yes it has a ton of violence and it’s basically them taking out the bad guys throughout the multiverse so they can be Punisher like. However the story is much deeper than that and the ultimate goal of them both is oddly the same and this cannot bode well for either one of them as the story itself nears its completion. That is if this is going to complete it or if there is going to be so much more still in store. This is pushing the boundaries of what we’ve come to expect and that’s absolutely stupendous!