Is It Good? Manifest Destiny #14 Review

After a disappointing month-long break, Manifest Destiny has returned! Let’s dive into this new issue and see what happens next. Is it good?

Manifest Destiny #14 (Image Comics)

The Lewis and Clark Expedition has discovered a new and rather nasty species that looks like a cross between a bird and bear… kind of? It’s a weird find to be sure. However, this new specimen is not the only thing that is troubling the crew, as other problems start to emerge.

This was a sort of slow issue and probably not the most exciting thing to come back to after a random one month break. Not a whole lot exciting happened here; mostly just building things up for next time with the appearance of a larger monster and Lewis getting into a fight an opposing member of the expedition. None of this is particularly bad and the story seems to be progressing more forward than most issues, but outside of the opening, there’s not much in the way of excitement.

Luckily, a month long break did not affect the high quality writing this series is used to. The pacing is nice and paced reasonably, with no real moment where the story grinds to a halt. The characterization feels like it’s improving, and we are getting slightly more personality to various members of the expedition here and there, like with Pryor and his men. The overall structure of the story is fine and there are no bad transitions or weird cuts going on here. All in all, no real complaints with the writing at all.

Likewise, the artwork still looks very good. The characters are well drawn and easily distinguishable from one another (it’s definitely more noticeable in that regard in group shots). The layouts are good, if a bit average, and the coloring really helps create a nice mood at points. The creature designs are still pretty memorable and you spend a little bit of time just studying the amount of detail and uniqueness of them. Outside of maybe the rare blank and barren background in some of the panels, there are, again, no real complaints to be had with how the art turned out here.

Is It Good?

Manifest Destiny #14 is another solid issue of the series, but one that felt a bit slower and not as exciting as others. It still feels like it is setting things up for when things really start picking up, which appears to be next issue. Despite that, the writing and artwork still really come together to make a really good read regardless. If you’ve been enjoying the comic up until now, there’s no reason to miss out.