Human Remains #3

Human Remains #3

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Peter Milligan

Illustrated by Sally Cantirino

Coloured by Dearbhla Kelly

Lettered by Andworld Design

Disparate lives are woven together in this terrifying, new world where strong emotions are hunted by monstrous creatures. While General Sullivan tries to lure the lifeforms into a fight, Jessica finally finds the courage to leave her own domestic monster. Meanwhile, Naresh is about to investigate a community where there have been no attacks...before being delayed by an act of gut-wrenching horror.

I think that with this being three issues in and we’re no closer to knowing what exactly is going on here has me all a twitter with excitement. I mean it isn’t often that we get this far and we’re still in the dark and that the General tried to use his brute force approach and failed miserably made me such a happy camper. I mean might doesn’t make right and I’m tired of seeing the military types thinking it does. I love seeing Naresh’s approach and I’m hoping that she manages to really accomplish something with her line of inquiry. In the meantime i’m a bit sad and a bit happy with what we see throughout this issue and if you are reading you’ll know exactly what that’s about, if not you need to read this because trust me when I say this is unlike anything you’ll ever read.

I’m very much 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 presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job with how we see their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more mysterious these creatures become.

I’m pretty impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I’m also liking the way that we see the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored. How we see these avenues being explored add some 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 are impeccably handled.

I wish that these creatures were a lot more menacing looking but I do appreciate the way that we see bits and pieces of them as they go about their business so that the readers’ minds get to expand those moments which is always more terrifying than we actually see. How we see the backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they 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. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows such a great understanding of how colour works.

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I don’t know what these things are but to see how subtly they are evolving or at least how we are seeing them grow and change is fascinating stuff and that we aren’t privy to what this is means we have to keep coming back and watch how these characters learn on their own what’s going on and this lends an air of excitement all its own to the story. There is some really enticing writing and some transfixing characterisation with some solid interiors bringing this all to life.