Between Toba and Darsha, the young people figure they know what is going on. But will they be able to get through all the men in black and find the computer room? Find out in Buckhead #3 from BOOM! Studios.
BUCKHEAD #3
Writer: Shobo
Artist: George Kambadais
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Sophie Philips-Roberts
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 2, 2022
Previously in Buckhead: Toba goes to meet Josue, but finds him surrounded by mysterious men in black. He also sees his mother there. He runs home to find no one there, and more men in black outside the house. Some time later, Josue comes over and accuses Toba of not coming to meet him. Toba tells him about the men in black. Josue does not remember them. They go to school, and neither Mel nor Romy are there. Toba sees the girl with the dog, but she runs away before he can talk to her. Toba decides they need to play the Elseverse game again, but when they go to the computer lab, the door to the basement is gone! Toba goes home and does some searching, finding documentation for the “Else Virtual Reality System.” His mother finally comes home, but when he asks her about the VR, she changes and the men in black show up!
THINGS START TO COME TOGETHER
As Buckhead #3 opens, Toba wakes up on a couch in the boarded-up house. Last issue, he was rescued by the girl (Darsha) and her dog (Shadow). Toba is surprised to see Mel and Romy there already. They also brought Josue in, but he seems to be completely out of it. Darsha steps up, takes charge, and proclaims that they are going to fight back. Toba is taken aback by this, but Darsha claims she is the only one who knows what is going on in town.
She explains that the goons in black are androids. When they first attacked, she hid and then fought against them. The robots got everyone but her. She managed to escape with Shadow’s help, and they hid together in the abandoned house. To get food, she snuck into people’s houses at night and that’s when she discovered that the grown-ups appear to be mind-controlled. Every night at midnight they go to the school. She has not found the control room, but she has built a machine that dampens the mind-control signal.
Toba figures out that the secret computer lab in the school basement must be the control room, and Darsha wants to leave immediately to destroy it. Toba stops her and fills her in with what he discovered in his mother’s files. Ewon, it turns out, was one of eight generals in an ancient celestial army called the Ajogun. In the ancient Edo kingdom, the Ajogun fought against the humans and their divine protectors, the Òrìshà. I love how this connects with Yoruba history. After the battle, Ewon torments the people until a wandering mathematician imprisons him until Toba’s parents unwittingly set him free.
It isn’t just a matter of destroying the control room. Toba wants to rescue his father. He also shares blueprints for a device called a BSP-PAK. His mother intended to build it so she could enter the Elseverse. With Darsha’s lead, and after a brief montage, they are able to build a single BSP-PAK. They wait until night, then gather up useful equipment and head for the school. As long as they stay together holding hands, the androids won’t be able to see them. Almost immediately Toba and Darsha get into an argument over who will go into the Elseverse.
HISTORY THAT IS FULL OF ENERGY
I love how smart and resourceful the kids are in Buckhead #3. As soon as we see the interior of the abandoned house, we can tell that Darsha has been up to a lot. The interior of the house has very little furniture in it, but it has a lot of cables and strange equipment. Her back story fills us in on a lot over two pages thanks to the art pulling out crucial scenes. We see that Darsha is athletic in addition to being smart. The mind control scenes at night are tinted with green which not only makes them look rather creepy, but it makes it super clear that something is going on.
The art does a similar job when Toba tells his story. He has a lot of history/legend to cover in describing the conflict between the Òrìshà and the Ajogun. While the Ajogun were defeated, they were not destroyed. The advances in human civilization left them vulnerable to Ewon’s future attack. It’s a complicated long view in which I think we can find some connection to our present world. But again, the art picks very specific scenes that move a tremendous amount of back story along quickly and give it a lot of tension.
BOTTOM LINE: TURNING THE TIDE
Buckhead #3 forges ahead with a lot of verve. I love the imagination and cultural exploration in the story as much as I love that these young people are smart and capable.
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Buckhead #3
The mystery of the old house is solved, but there are bigger problems in Buckhead!
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Writing9
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Art8
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Coloring9
By day, she’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and Ms. Know-It-All. By night, she’s a dance teacher and RPG player (although admittedly not on the same nights). On the weekends, she may be found judging Magic, playing Guild Wars 2 (badly), or following other creative pursuits. Holy Lack of Copious Free Time, Batman! While she’s always wished she had teleportation as her superpower, she suspects that super-speed would be much more practical because then she’d have time to finish up those steampunk costumes she’s also working on.