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Three Strikes #4

By Leroy Douresseau
November 30, 2003 - 09:30

Quite a few things make THREE STRIKES, the new mini-series from Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir and Brian Hurtt stand out, and #4 encompasses the most important one of all. This series is an excellent example of serialized drama. Each chapter of a serial should stand on it's on with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. Each chapter should also make the reader want to return, and I can't stop reading 3S.

The story of Rey Quintana, felon on the run, and Noah, the bail enforcement officer on his scent, also encompasses the stories of other characters, which creates a balancing act that expands the larger narrative The Rey/Noah dynamic doesn't exist in a vacuum. For each man's motivation and goals are hampered by the demands of other people. For Rey, it's his homie, Billy. For Noah, it's his daughter Shelley with her hard feelings towards him because she thinks he's a bad dad.

These subplots interconnect and enrich giving weight, depth, and dramatic impact. The reader needs a reason to come back. All those threads combine to make the inevitable final confrontation between Rey and Noah something that the reader desires all the more with each passing scene and fuels the reader's desire to come back for the next chapter.

I can't say enough good things about Brian Hurtt. He's mastered the art of drawing comics as drama. He is steadily developing a comic art language that is divorcing itself from the dialect that dominates American comics - superhero fantasy, and is creating one that merges documentary and drama. GRADE A-

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12