The Issue:
The Kill Machine: Part 3 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino and Marcelo Maiolo
Three issues into The Kill Machine and the mysteries are still coming. We still need to know what’s Robert Queen’s connection to the island, who are the Outsiders, what is The Magus’s deal (seriously, this guy is starting to get a really creepy vibe), why is Komodo so hell bent on destroying Ollie, etc. I don’t mean any of that as a knock against the book. Personally, it’s a breath of fresh air for a title that’s been needing a clear direction since the New 52 reboot.
That said, if you’re hoping for a bunch of answers from this issue then you’re going to have to wait a little longer. This issue mainly focuses on hard hitting showdown between Green Arrow and Komodo after last issue’s cliffhanger. Andrea Sorrentino really knocks this whole issue out of the park. The action sequences are beautifully drawn and I still love those smaller panels that highlight important aspects of the art. Marcelo Maiolo’s colors continue to impress as well. I said it last issue and I’ll say it again, his colors add so much more depth and nuance than what we saw in issue 17. Really hope these two stick around and continue to grow.
We did get one revelation amidst all of the fighting. Komodo admits to killing Robert Queen.
The cover kind of spoils this twist but it does bring up another question. If that is Komodo in the picture with Robert and Emerson that Ollie found last issue, then what happened to make him turn against two people he seemed to be friends with? Komodo seemed to have a real disdain for Robert when he was mocking Ollie about his death. So whatever it was, it must have turned personal at some point.
I did have one little complaint with this issue. Green Arrow seemed to get played down a LOT for the entire story. I can understand the villain berating the hero and mocking his skills but there are points when even Green Arrow is admitting to not being as good of a shot. He even gets shown up by a ten year old girl towards the end. It’s not a big problem and, truthfully, it’s probably just the fanboy in me not wanting to see his favorite hero get shown up by anyone.
All in all, it’s another solid issue. A nice break in the talking and world building of the previous two issues for a knock-down-drag-out fight if you will. Some of the preview art for issue 20 makes it look like we might be seeing more from the “now” timeline in the Black Mesa desert. Hopefully that means we’ll start piecing together some of these story threads and get into the meat of the story soon.
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