Vin and Reynolds take on one of the biggest spiders we have seen yet. Dani also sees the spider. Will she believe her own eyes, or follow her boss’s orders to ignore any evidence? Find out in All Eight Eyes #3 from Dark Horse Comics!
ALL EIGHT EYES #3
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Piotr Kowalski
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 21, 2023
Previously in All Eight Eyes: A package arrives at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. In it is a huge spider carcass. Director Godino orders Dani Dominguez to incinerate it. Vin tries to tell his friend Amy about the spiders, but she walks away and tells him to get some help. Reynolds has heard of a monster sighting at an abandoned school. Meanwhile, Godino asks Dominguez to accompany him on a visit to a site that may be available for development soon, and he is trying to make friends with potential developers. Everyone converges on the same abandoned school. Reynolds and Vin find it first. The others hear the noise, and Godino sends Dominguez and the school’s caretaker to investigate.
A FLARE OF TENSIONS
Welcome back to the spine-tingling world of All Eight Eyes #3, which opens as Vin comes to and finds Dani. She tells him he was bitten. Meanwhile, Reynolds attacks the spider with his trusty hammer and a bat. Vin wants to know how they can help. Instead, Reynolds tells him to get out. Dani mentions that the cops are on the way, but Vin does not think they will do anything. Instead, he gets the spider’s attention and lures it over the trap door on the stage. Once it is partially stuck, he and Reynolds can kill it.
In the aftermath, tensions run a little high as Reynolds berates Vin for taking such a risk. When Dani speaks up, Reynolds threatens her with his hammer and Vin lays into him. Dani runs off, accidentally dropping her wallet. Vin sneaks back out through the window and decides to part ways with Reynolds. Godino has no clue what is going on.
Vin goes to Amy’s place and asks if he can crash there. He falls asleep only to have a horrifying spider nightmare. When he awakens, way too early, he leaves. He does not feel comfortable staying with her. Instead, he finds Reynolds. He feels committed to help him, but only on the condition that he does not lose his cool in front of normal people. In turn, Reynolds confesses that that is not his name – it is only the name on the military jacket he got at a shelter.
Dominguez sneaks into work on a day she calls in sick. Godino spots her. She fakes some coughing and says she only came in to get some files to work on. Godino, a germophobe, is only too happy to let her get on her way. But instead of getting files, she finds Ernie.
Reynolds tells Vin his story. He had a good but unassuming life with his wife and their little boy. One day he came home to find his wife injured and traumatized. A giant spider was in their basement, and every indication is that it killed the child. The spider attacked Reynolds as well, and accidentally ruptured a gas line. Reynolds was the only one who survived.
NIGHTMARE FODDER
I like how the opening sequence in All Eight Eyes #3 confirms for us that Dani is a good person at heart. Even as she walks in on the craziest and most horrifying thing she has seen in her life, she does not panic immediately. She sees that Vin is down and goes to help him. Then we see Reynolds fighting the spider and Vin, still somewhat dazed, asks what is going on. This is when Dani finally loses her cool. Vin was here first – why doesn’t he know what is going on? She slaps him but manages to pull herself together again, at least for a little while. The fight with the spider is too much for her just now.
Vin’s spider nightmare has some truly terrifying imagery. There is an initial moment where we don’t know yet that this is a nightmare. Amy gets Vin set up on the couch, waits until he settles in, and then gets up and turns off the light. When she turns to look back at him, instead of her normal face we see a hideous blend of a human and a spider face. It is well-drawn and extremely unsettling. Vin’s nightmare continues, and we hope it is a nightmare, because if it isn’t, this book will have a very quick ending. We cannot help but suspect that Vin may not be getting a lot of good sleep though.
BOTTOM LINE: A GRIPPING TALE
All Eight Eyes #3 is original and frightening. While some parts fall flatter than others (Godino is stereotypical and almost more comic relief than antagonist), the idea of using the giant spiders as a metaphor for people ignoring difficult problems makes for some great storytelling moments.
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All Eight Eyes #3
Vin considers giving up the spider hunting life, but the spider hunting life will not let him go.
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Writing8
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Art9
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Coloring8
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.