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Is It Good? Silent Hill Downpour: Anne's Story #3 Review

Comic Books

Is It Good? Silent Hill Downpour: Anne’s Story #3 Review

Last issue in Anne’s Story, there was an overall improvement in the quality from the first. Can the comic keep it up as we enter the third issue? Is it good?


Silent Hill Downpour: Anne’s Story #3 (IDW Publishing)


Is It Good? Silent Hill Downpour: Anne's Story #3 Review

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Anne’s got a new destination after all the crazy shit she’s encountered since being in this town: the clock tower where Radio DJ Ricks is playing music. The thing is, on the radio, he’s constantly mentioning that he is getting requests for songs to play Pendleton Murphy. Perhaps Ricks knows something; it’s not like Anne’s got much direction or places to run when there are still monsters about.

Is It Good? Silent Hill Downpour: Anne's Story #3 Review
In Silent Hill, even the bridal store mannequins are creepy.

This issue, unfortunately, is a bit of a step back. There isn’t as much plot progression or even backstory given as previous issues. There’s definitely some, mind you, filling in the remaining details of Anne’s story before the bus crash and such, but not nearly as much. All of plot and backstory are at the beginning and the end, while the majority of the issue is Anne facing the monsters and wandering around (on the flipside, it does fit the experience one gets while playing the game). It’s not nearly as engaging as the issue before, having an odd pacing to it especially due to the large amounts of dialogue at the beginning and end. The story bits and backstory that we do get are good though, helping to flesh out more of the character and see how twisted and broken she is on the inside. It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for her considering how much she went through and suffered, only to end up here.

The rest of the writing fares better, thankfully. The rest of the characters here are decently characterized and provide enough detail to give you insight into them (though like always, having played the game before reading this is a must). The dialogue and narration are well-written, though Anne, at this point, does feel a bit overly obsessed with her dad with how she talks about and refers to him. For a horror comic, there wasn’t much horrific or scary imagery (some, but not as much as there could be) and the issue didn’t end up very frightening. The narrative and story-structure are still fine, but a transition between two scenes felt incredibly awkward and random and that’s even in comparison to other scenes from Silent Hill material. The ending is a bit interesting, but it does feel like the comic just sort of stopped. Overall, there are some minor nitpicks, but all told, the writing is pretty good.

Is It Good? Silent Hill Downpour: Anne's Story #3 Review
Nah, I say his life still pretty fucked up.

The artwork is also pretty good. While it and the story feel decompressed in areas, judging by how big some of the panels are and how little is happening in them, the layouts are still pretty solid and flow well from one to the next. The characters look solid and like who they are supposed to, while the coloring does help fit the feel and look of the game. The monster designs we got here are sadly not as creative or unique looking as the ones we got before, though they mostly still do a good job at representing Anne’s inner demons (except for one that looks a classic depiction of a demon that seems almost out of place).

Is It Good?

Silent Hill Downpour: Anne’s Story #3 is a good issue, but nearly as good the previous installment of the mini-series. It does help add more to Anne’s backstory and progresses the main story nicely, but it’s kind of decompressed and the pacing isn’t all that good. It’s certainly not a bad issue and there are still plenty of interesting elements that will certainly make the audience come back for the finale.

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