Review: Dark Crisis #3 (of 7)

What is it with DC and the word “Crisis”? Marvel may have the word “war” or “secret” in their repository, but do either words generate the same sense of dread as “Crisis”? Has it become over used, especially given the modern age of comics, where nothing in these evens ever amounts to a hill of beans? Does it now carry less of a threat than the Daleks of Doctor Who or the xenomorph Alien? For fans of a certain age, me being one of them, “Crisis” still carries an impact of how things can change, or at the very least, how it impacted the characters themselves. Will Dark Crisis carry the same weight?

Joshua Williamson deserves a lot of credit this time around. There is a current trend in comics that any major incident in an event book will happen in the tie-ins. Williamson certainly seems to consider this, with the first half of this issue more a talking head session. Williamson uses this to draw a curtain as such, over the the first arc of Beast Boy being shot, before setting up not one but two turning points with the Lanterns (including Jess for change?) and Deathstroke. Williamson has the voices of the characters down brilliantly, in a way that I don’t Snyder managed in his Justice League run.

The art from Daniel Sampere works well. Some might say, cynically, that Sampere is using a house style and there is some truth in that as for the most part, the characters look as they should. There are differences; both Dick and Donna look older than you’d possibly expect, though Damien also “suffers’ this style. Yara’s confrontation with Adam is gorgeous; on the flip some of the JSA don’t get the best service; Power Girl has no chest and when did Doctor Midnight go through gender reassignment? That said, I am please to see them. Any inconsistencies in art could be due to the use of three inkers, Sampere, Daniel Henriques and Danny Miki all taking on the challenge. Colors are provided by Alejandro Sánchez who does a great job in the aforementioned Lanterns and Deathstroke scenes, adding a strong sense of despair in the early hospital scenes. Tom Napolitano does a great job on letters; being a bit of a talky book, he doesn’t allow the the sheer amount of verbiage to distract from the visuals. Make me wonder why there is no cover credit for him!

This book was to have the first appearance of the Red Canary, and she does appear, though blink and you may miss her. Middle point of the story and the heroes are still licking their wounds. I do sometimes worry about continuity, given the amount of character who have their own books and stories; can Nightwing spend this much time away from Blüdhaven? Overall though, I am in for the ride. lets see where it ends.

Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

Overall – 4 Stars

Written by; Joshua Williamson
Art by; Daniel Sampere
Inks by; Daniel Sampere, Daniel Henriques & Danny Miki
Colors by; Alejandro Sánchez
Letters by; Tom Napolitano
Published by; DC Comics

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network