“Beyond the Breach” #3 is great artistically. The story falls a bit flat. (Warning: may contain minor spoilers.)
Cover by Damian Couceiro
and Patricio DelpecheWritten by Ed Brisson
Illustrated by Damian Couceiro
Colored by Patricio Delpeche
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-ElhaouIt’s a showdown in Garberville! Vanessa’s new friend might just be an ultra-dimensional outlaw on the run, and now she’s caught between him and those sent to hunt him down. If she hands him over, she’ll never find out the secret of The Breach, but can she help someone who’s responsible for the deaths of thousands?
It’s not often you begin a review by talking about the lettering. In fact, I can’t remember ever doing it before. Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s exceptional lettering in “Beyond the Breach” #3, however, deserves some extra attention. So that’s where we’re going to start.
Six pages into this issue, a tense negotiation turns violent. One side has lost its patience and decides to open fire. This kind of scene, of course, is pretty typical comic book fare. Gun muzzles flash, projectiles streak through the air, chaos ensues and blood is spilled. The thing that makes this scene different – and more intense – than a more typical depiction is how Otsmane-Elhaou brilliantly weaves lettering into the scene.
In this case, the sound effect for the bullets – or whatever they are – is a simple, repetitive “Shrak.” Notably, these words aren’t just flat on the page. Instead, they appear to be on a separate visual plane. One that quite literally gives the artwork an extra dimension.
Moments later, within the same fight scene, Samuel battles two of the extra-dimensional bad guys with his dagger. In each of the two panels, illustrator Damian Couceiro and colorist Patricio Delpeche have created a visually stunning – not to mention intriguing – pixelated effect that suggests Samuel’s attackers haven’t merely been dispatched, they’ve been returned to some other plane of existence. They’ve evaporated from this world and gone to another realm.
Here, Otsmane-Elhaou represents the slicing sound of Samuel’s dagger with “Shwk” and the stabbing sound that follows with “Shkk.” Both of these words are colored the same intense neon green as the pixelated visual effect. Again, these aren’t mere words on a page. The letters mesh with the blocky pixels in a way that makes the words part of the effect, inextricably woven into the action. There’s also a subtle “Flik” when Samuel throws one of his daggers. At first glance these letters may look like the dagger’s motion lines. Upon closer examination, they slowly morph into the word for the sound effect – like something we barely hear in the chaos of the battle.
Visually, the whole team does outstanding work, with great paneling, excellent facial expressions and an array of eye-catching colors that differentiate each scene. Narratively, however, the issue falls a bit flat. The second book ended with a great cliffhanger. You knew things were ready to bust wide open.
Unfortunately, as book three opens, there’s an awful lot of talking before the dam finally breaks. It’s an interesting conversation, but it’s also stationary. Nothing happens concurrently. Neither the protagonists nor the story really move forward in a very meaningful way. We meet a few secondary characters, but at most only one of them seems like they may return somewhere down the line. The others either get killed or just sort of vanish.
Without question, Ed Brisson’s dialogue can sometimes be very funny, as when our protagonists try to figure out how far they will have to travel. “That’s at least seven hundred miles, maybe even eight hundred,” they are told. Being from another realm, Samuel explains that he doesn’t know what miles are. “I’m Canadian. I don’t know, either,” says Vanessa. “I don’t know what a Canadian is,” Samuel deadpans.
As a group, they’re all coalescing. By the end of the book, they’ve literally mapped out their quest (with a thick black Sharpie, no less), yet we haven’t really learned anything new about this universe works, much less how this particular narrative is situated within it. We readers – and Vanessa – learn some potentially disturbing information about Samuel and his past, but Samuel explains it away in vague, general terms and Vanessa lets it drop. This new knowledge doesn’t seem to make her wary, change her opinion of Samuel or change things in any way. In fact, Vanessa goes to sleep while Dougie rides the giant tortoise and tells it which way to go.
All in all it feels like most of this could’ve been covered by the end of the second issue. This book is by no means a throwaway, but it doesn’t exactly feel vital. Some details have been added, but the stakes really haven’t been raised. If you’re the kind of reader who enjoys great cartooning for the sake of great cartooning, there’s a lot to like – particularly Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s world class lettering. If you’re purely in it for the story, issue #3 doesn’t quite measure up to the first two installments.
Final Verdict: 7.4 “Beyond the Breach” #3 features some great cartooning, but the story feels a bit lackluster.
