St. Mercy #3

St. Mercy #3

Top Cow Productions 2021

Written by John Zuur Platten

Illustrated by Atilio Rojo

Lettered by ALWS Troy Peteri

As Frank Danton and his gang confront Mercy and her father about the Incan gold, they violently search the mission seeking the ancient treasure. Meanwhile, Toctollissica’s day of sacrifice has arrived. But will Supay, god of the underworld, discover the secret that the priests have been keeping for her? The lives of Mercy and Toctollissica merge through time, gold, and blood in this penultimate issue.

Well this issue takes us to Church and then some. I love this story and while five hundred years separate the arcs, how they weave through each other is so incredibly well done. While I am in love with the now section of the story, it’s the past that holds sway over me. I want to see more of these people, their beliefs and how the hubris of man can incur the wrath of a god as seen by Incan. It is a culture that we aren’t taught about or know much about so that appeals to me, the learning the knowledge of their lives and existence. Maybe I’m just odd that way who knows but the wild west is far from over and how we see this play out after seeing this issue unfold is something to definitely look forward to.

I love 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 exquisitely. 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 fantastic job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we’re drawn into two worlds which fascinate and thrill us.

I greatly appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. The layers do a wonderful job in opening up new avenues to be explored while we are exploring those already opened. What this does is add some fabulous 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 immaculately achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely gorgeous. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of work in the attention to detail is truly astounding. Faces, facial expressions and gun splatter really are exceptionally rendered and showcase how much creativity and imagination is on display. The way that backgrounds are 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 how we see the overall sense of size and scope to the story is amazing. 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 show a stupendous eye for how colour works. From the sun shining on the gold, to the way we see colour utilised to bring depth and dimension to clothing by way of wrinkles and movement is beyond what we could hope to see.

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For so many different reasons this is a remarkable story. The cruelty of man, the male of the species, whether it’s the Incan or American in the wild west remains the same throughout history and his hubris is on display in such a magnificent manner. The way that this is being told through its intelligent and thoughtful writing and spectacular characterisation alongside these bloody amazing interiors are why we read comics.