The more you think about time travel, the more frightening a concept it becomes. For instance — get zapped to the dinosaur ages and you’re lunch. Now imagine time travelling and having no power to stop nor anyway to determine where you’re going; then add in the requirement to hunt a demon and it gets pretty dicey. That’s the premise of Lucas Stand, but is the latest issue any good?
Lucas Stand #3 (BOOM! Studios)
So what’s it about? The BOOM! summary reads:
Lucas heads to Deadwood circa 1879 and begins to question Gadriel’s motives.
Why does this book matter?
So far this has been the sleeper hit of the year (we gave the first two issues perfect ten ratings) astounding with great story, dialogue, and art. This comic also offers plenty of bang for your buck, with more story in a single issue than most runs at DC or Marvel.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
The time hopping, demon hunting drama is back this week and it opens in the old West right where it left off last issue. It appears Lucas can’t be dropped into a new time and place without being in impending danger and this time he’s about to get hung. Writers Kurt Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge never really let up on the gas pedal in this issue with Lucas befriending a Native American, discovering a new twist on the demon preying on the people around him, and the overall plot developing as well.
The biggest success of this issue has to be Lucas befriending the Native American. Kurt Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge make this character instantly compelling as – though he’s a stranger – he quickly realizes Lucas is not from around these parts. The character has a hard edge as he’s a bounty hunter, but also an open minded one even though he must deal with racism. Lucas speaks to him as if it were 2016, which makes for an interesting dynamic. These two have a very unique and interesting relationship and I found myself wishing this series was a TV show already so we could get a couple more episodes with them working together.
This doesn’t look good.
The art by Jesús Hervás continues to make the heavy use of dialogue and captions a second thought, keeping the pace moving forward and the action easy to follow. His is a slightly rougher style with faces sometimes a little more than a few scratches, but it suits the old west. The detailed environments do well to capture the time and the clothes and weapons all suit the era too. When supernatural elements come into play Hervás really makes things pop and feel special. Ancient ruins look interesting and the use of color by Adam Metcalfe punches the art up nicely.
It can’t be perfect can it?
My only gripe is the very last page as the art is pretty rough and undetailed. It’s hard to immediately tell where the character is now, but you can figure it out based on the clothes though. It doesn’t give the cliffhanger enough pop to make you want more unfortunately.
It was rough back in the day.
Is It Good?
Yes. Lucas Stand continues to be a real treat for anyone interested in strong serialized storytelling with a deeply original premise.
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