Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Fernando Blanco
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Cover Artists: Fernando Blanco; Marcos Martin; Aaron Campbell; Ariel Diaz; & Martin Simmonds
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 28, 2023
Ellison climbs into his lawyer’s car. Silk and Nicky don’t want to release him, but the FBI agents can't arrest him for his brother's murders. As Ellison realizes no one else is in the car, it drives away from the police station, and a man’s voice pours through the speakers. What happens next? Let's climb into W0rldtr33 #3 and learn more!
Story
The voice pouring through the speakers calls himself Gabriel. He explains he's back at the police station, stealing his late brother's laptop and cell phone from the evidence room. The car stops behind the police station, and the wealthy technologist climbs inside. As the FBI agents guess they've made a fatal error, an explosion rocks the car. Ellison looks out the window. The police station is in flames. What has he gotten into?
Fausta—Ellison’s podcast producer, and perhaps more—had searched his late brother Gibson's house while the FBI agents detained him. She found an internet address and password on his desktop computer. Although he killed sixty people, she can't resist seeing what the Undernet revealed. Now she's mesmerized.
Darren and Amanda—two members of Gabriel’s team that discovered the Undernet—intended to torch Gibson's house. Now they attempt to rescue Fausta, unaware that PH34R—the naked, tattooed woman--has ignited their fire.
What kind of person is Gabriel? Who gives Silk and Nicky their marching orders? Can Darren and Amanda rescue Fausta and escape? While some things get murkier in W0rldtr33 #3, others grow clearer. Ellison has entered a nightmare he may never leave.
Art
Fernando Blanco spoils us with 196 panels across 24 pages, ensuring we never miss a moment. He draws buildings, vehicles, and characters with precision and attention to perspective. It's easy to care about Ellison. It's harder to read Gabriel and his cohorts. One minute they appear heartless, and the next approachable. If Silk and Nicky look cold and uncaring, their boss is a block of ice. Yet no one compares to PH34R. The naked, tattooed blonde strides through the suburbs in W0rldtr33 #3, serene, stately, and unabashed. If she smiles at you, run away as fast as you can!
Whether in Gabriel's car, the police records room, inside Gibson's former home, or anywhere else our characters travel, you feel like you're there too. Many creators would waste an entire page—or devote a double-page spread--to the explosion Gabriel unleashes. Blanco gives it nearly half a page, along with seven small panels. If any other creators out there average eight panels per page of art so detailed and representative, I want to read their comic!
Ellison looks gray against the car's gray interior. Gabriel searches the gray police evidence room wearing a gray pinstriped suit. When he opens the back door and slides in beside Ellison, orange twilight is fading to gray. The cars on the highway reflect the fading orange light as they speed across gray asphalt. Guess what color Gabriel's hair is? I'll give you a clue. It's not orange.
While Jordie Bellaire seems fixated upon gray, orange, green, and blue in W0rldtr33 #3, she delivers nuanced and contrasting colors that deepen the mood, intensifies the drama, and heighten the reality. Yet all pales before the howling kaleidoscopic void that opens when the Undernet invades our world.
Aditya Bidikar helps us hear dialogue with (mostly) uppercase black letters in white balloons. The font makes for easy reading, but I wouldn't mind it slightly larger. The Underworld's ZIZZ grows unintelligible as it assaults Fausta. A WUFF overwrites Gabriel's face as he turns off all lights in the police station. The white letters baDEEP, outlined in green, hover over the bomb. The yellow, orange, and red KRAKOOM reveal the intensity of the explosion.
Final Thoughts
W0rldtr33 #3 overturns our preconceptions and ponders how readily we may advance objectives detrimental to our well-being.
Rating 9.4/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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