Last time around, the “Cargo of Doom” was revealed in full and the results were, well, completely unexpected. This issue may not contain something as insane as dinosaurs flying around on jetpacks, but there’s still plenty here to like.
Written by Mark Waid
Illustrated by Chris SamneeThe mysterious cargo is finally revealed and Cliff will discover what demons will be descending on the City of Angels! It’s all action as the Rocketeer must rise to challenges the likes of which he has never before faced. Meanwhile, what exactly is Peevy’s niece up to, and are her intentions as innocent as they seem?
Before I get into the review, let me just take a second to talk about how great the cover of this issue is. I mentioned in a previous review how effective Samnee was at choosing when to allow the reader to see Cliff’s eyes peering from the helmet and when to obscure them in darkness. Seeing Cliff wide-eyed inside the helmet suggests a great ominous feeling of doom that is more effective because Samnee is very choosy about using it. And then you have the dinosaur’s head reflected in the helmet, nicely contouring to the shape of that helmet. It’s just a great cover; indicative of the tone and content inside the book and another highlight of Samnee’s ever improving technique.
Seeing as this is the 3rd issue in a 4 issue miniseries, Mark Waid starts to ramp up the action quite a bit. Cliff spends plenty of time swashbuckling and defending himself against giant dinosaurs. Meanwhile, he still has to deal with the villains who are trying to perpetrate this maniacal plot. Waid has already set these villains up as impractical and eccentrically evil, so it’s no surprise that they keep their attentions on trying to beat Cliff to a pulp even as their ship goes down in flames and dinosaurs threaten their own lives. On the homefront, Waid writes a nice little scene where all of Cliff’s friends get some moments to bounce off of one another some more. But at the end of the day, this issue is about how Cliff takes on impossible threats with gusto. Waid has highlighted Cliff’s penchant for derring do in earlier issues, and this one is no different. He plays himself up to a crowd of people on the street in a scene that readers can’t help but grin at.
There is a clunky bit in the middle where Cliff has to get from one particular place to another and get the tools that he’s going to use to take on the dinosaurs. Waid usually doesn’t fall prey to writing overly expository scenes, but this segment just doesn’t read as well as anything else in this miniseries so far. This was especially noticeable considering that Waid is more than happy to gloss over the details or explanations behind things in the interest of just having fun and reveling in the ridiculous. “Never mind that!” yells one character when CLiff asks about how the villains got the dinosaur cargo. Waid humorously shrugs off that explanation in a way that works, but it makes some of the other exposition stand out a little too much.
Chris Samnee does his best to make these scenes more interesting and he mostly succeeds. Even if it’s somewhat awkward at points, I can’t say that the issue is ever really boring thanks mostly to his gorgeous, bold art that is just fun to look at no matter what is happening in the story. I’ve already highlighted Samnee’s ability to selectively play up the ominous tone required for the dangers in this issue, but he also does an incredible job of making ridiculous fight scenes make sense. The way that he pits Cliff in flight, a tiny image against the hulking forms of the huge dinosaurs looks as natural as that sort of thing can. His sense of scale is noticeably on-point.
It’s hard to say that this issue took a step back, because the action is ramping up and Waid and Samnee have put everything in place for the story’s logical conclusion and that action is certainly satisfying. But this is the first time in this series where there is some downtime that isn’t filled with great character moments. The middle section of the story feels like the means to an end, which should go relatively unnoticed when read as a series, but stood out in this issue. Regardless, if you’ve come this far, there’s no reason to quit. You will feel satisfied by where this story is going. If you haven’t been reading this, there’s still every reason to pick this up at some point. The art is gorgeous and Waid is very much suited for this kind of character.
Final Verdict: 7.4 – Buy.
