By Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col (writers), Andy Belanger (art), Ian Herring (colors), Chris Mowry (letters)
The Story: Hamlet meets a new friend in a gentleman named Fallstaff—and also gains a bit of purpose and guidance from a “Prodigal” forest spirit called Robin Goodfellow. Elsewhere, Richard III and Macbeth negotiate between themselves and jockey for superiority. They are not alone, though, as Macbeth’s famous wife may prove to be a powerful ally.
What’s Good: The jump in quality between the first issue and the second issue of this series was quite large, and I’m thrilled to report that this trend continues into issue three. The first thing you’ll notice about the book when you leaf through it is that the entire thing is drop-dead gorgeous from the title page to the back cover. The improvement (not in the overall art style of course, which has remained nicely consistent, but in the detailing) is quite incredible, and a joy to watch develop. The expression “feast for the eyes” is rather cliché, but there are very, very few pages in this book that don’t fit that description. Maybe the new settings have allowed Belanger and Herring room to blossom or maybe they’ve both decided to kick it up a notch, but either way the result is one of the most striking books I’ve looked at in a long, long time. The large panels with smaller panels inset reminds me quite a bit of J.H. Williams III—and if you know my feelings about him (and specifically his work on Detective Comics) you’ll know that that’s just about the highest compliment I could give. The rich colors back up the pencils perfectly, and the result is just beautiful.
Thankfully, the lovely visuals are enhanced by an excellent script by McCreery and Del Col. The cast is spectacular (no shock given their origin of course), and each is written in a way that lets their best—and often most fun—characteristics shine through. Fallstaff especially lends himself to humorous lines and antics, and this serves to lighten the tone of this issue considerably. This indicates not only that the authors have a good sense of pacing within each issue, but that they have solid control of the story’s pacing as a whole; the first two issues were so heavy and dark that the story was becoming bogged down under its own weight. In this issue we feel the weight lift a bit, without losing any of the momentum or impetus that has already been established. Well done, sirs, and extra points for the rhyming poetry of Puck’s dialog as well. (Catalectic trochaic tetrameter ftw!) Once again: just beautiful.
What’s Not So Good: One complaint, and one only. From a writing standpoint, Hamlet is steadily falling into the Hero Trap, where the main character substitutes a square jaw and dogged determination for an actual personality or characterization. We get bits and pieces of who this Hamlet is, and clearly he’s still quite confused and at a loss (par for the course with him, naturally…), but it really is time to get something else from the man we’re supposed to be rooting for. It’s all well and good for him to be surrounded by wonderful, colorful characters like Fallstaff, Richard III, Puck and Macbeth, but I want some insight into the character playing the everyman—the person who is my eyes and ears into this fantastical world. In the plays, of course, Shakespeare utilized soliloquies to let the audience in to a character’s mind and heart. As a reader, I desperately want a soliloquy (or a comic book equivalent of the same) from this Hamlet, so I can learn more about him and what he’s feeling in his own words, without the limits that the current style of dialog and character interaction is imposing.
Conclusion: What a fantastic book, both in art and in story. It took a couple issues to find its feet, but now that it’s off and running, I cannot wait to see where it goes. This is exactly the sort of issue I was hoping would come out of the second. It justifies not only the $3.99 price point, but the price of the first two issues as well. If you aren’t reading this or aren’t caught up, this would be the time to do so.
Grade: A
-SoldierHawk
Filed under: IDW Tagged: | Andy Belanger, Anthony Del Col, Chris Mowry, Comic Book Reviews, Conor McCreery, Ian Herring, IDW, IDW Publishing, Kill Shakespare #3 reivew, Kill Shakespeare, Kill Shakespeare #3, Kill Shakespeare #3 review, Weekly Comic Book Review
