Suicide Squad meets George R.R. Martin comes together for a grim dark fantasy adventure. Come check out Reaver #3 and see if peace can come to the continent of Madaras.

REAVER #3

Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: Rebekah Issacs
Colorist: Alex Guimaraes
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jon Moisan
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 11th, 2019

Previously in Reaver: Madaras turned from uncharted land to war ridden continent in 200 years. While many people are preoccupied with the war, a darkness builds that must be stopped. The Imperials assemble six prisoners to come together as the Hell’s Half-Dozen to save this new world. 

A DANGEROUS MISSION

Hell’s Half Dozen arrive at an Escalene Outpost and begin to prepare for their mission. This mission doesn’t need the full cast of characters to participate and will only involve Rekala, Mister Eddos, and Sergeant Mahan. The issue starts with Eddos questioning the Sorcerer with why they are here and what this mission has to deal with the overall objective of finding The Anvil. He is met by an antidote being thrown in his hand to the poison that is slowly killing him. The only answer to his question is that he will be killed if he doesn’t comply.

Eddos and Mahan enter the outpost to search the city looking for a target while also getting a sense of the town. After scouting and learning a little about the locale, they find themselves at a tavern where they see their target drinking and purchasing a prostitute. Mahan and Eddos split up to try and corner this man and Mahan interrupts his time with the prostitute to cross his own literal sword with his target. However, Mahan’s opponent is a trained Escalene soldier and a much better fighter and to win Mahan ends up playing dirty by biting his nose before decapitating him. Eddos seems to have gotten distracted by talking to a street urchin and passing along a letter instead of helping Mahan in the fight.

Meanwhile, Rekala is sneaking into the Registrant’s office to steal some papers. After dispatching an office worker, she is able to grab the papers and makes her escape by lighting the building and most of the city on fire. Back at camp, they deliver the papers and the decapitated head as the sorcerer begins to prepare some sort of surgery to gain knowledge on the head.

I AM CONFLICTED

I finished my first read through of the comic and I admit I wasn’t too sure if I liked the story. This story made me think. A lot of literature shows altruism as a theme but this story shows the opposite. These people have to help if they want to live leading to a storyline that has an underlying aspect of selfishness. It isn’t a story of Frodo selflessly going to Mordor to carry the ring or any number of heroes that save the world out of goodness. As I thought more and more about this idea, the more and more I enjoyed the story. Now, I know that there are plenty of stories that have selfish protagonists that are forced to save the world and I know this idea is not new. But I appreciate the way Jordan wrote the story and it was enough to not take the story at face value and see the depth of this theme.

This conflict on what I thought about the story allowed me to connect to the conflicting nature of Sargent Mahan. Mahan seems to have the most depth in the cast of characters in this issue. He is the one trying to figure out what is right and wrong and his own role in the current events. While everyone else seems to be focusing with a degree of confidence, Mahan approaches things with a degree of self doubt. Doubt can be healthy. Doubt makes you cautious as opposed to arrogant. Doubt allows you to be open to being wrong and accepting other truths. Now too much doubt can make you gullible and can lead to inaction but I wonder how far the creators of the book will go with this theme for this character.

BOTTOM LINE: INTRIGUING BUT ON THE FENCE

I liked the book even if it took me some time to get into it. The story is gritty, dark, and violent and it makes you think about the moral grey area. The themes of altruism versus selfishness seems very apparent to me and ultimately I applaud what they are trying to do here. I will for sure be picking up the next issue to see where the story goes.

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Reaver #3

67%

67%

Intriguing

The story is gritty, dark, and violent and it makes you think about the moral grey area. The themes of altruism versus selfishness seems very apparent to me and ultimately I applaud what they are trying to do here.

• Writing

  8
• Art

  6
• Coloring

  6
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