(Editor’s Note for Thursday, 7/24/25: David Messina actually handles art for issue #3. The writer maintains that the sentiments expressed remain true, and he regrets the error.)
The story of Dark Honor so far has been that of a fever.
Issue #1 brought me to my knees — in front of the porcelain throne as this “COVID crime caper” made me sick with its iffy premise and hokey vibes. Meanwhile, issue #2 gave us a greater focus and more stakes-driven narrative (which wasn’t the total cure-all you’d want/expect). While
While Dark Honor #3 may have started breaking said fever, we’re not exactly out of the woods just yet.
As always, the bulk of what this issue does well is more traditional action comics fare. Artist Fico Ossio David Messina is a bona fide whiz at facilitating this empty but hugely stylized New York City, balancing a sense of eerily isolation with glamorous end-of-the-world parties as well as old-school mafioso action. Plus, if you like a heaping helping of Cinemax naughtiness, then issue #3 brings it.
And, truly, any bit of texture or layering with this occasionally one-note crime story does wonders. Because it may look sleek and intense as all get out, but Dark Honor does also struggle with maintaining a proper edge all the way through.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
It’s why, and we’ll get to the good stuff in a bit, a lot of this issue ends up as mostly generic mafia stuff. Again, the aesthetic here — heavy with ‘90s undertones but clearly extended and updated for the 2020s — does a lot to help. But the follow-up narrative and character work often feels a little slow and/or dull. Rain, our lead, can’t even stand out even as she has both a wicked gambling addiction and also has some great combat scenes across #3. She mostly just feels like our way into the story, and while she looks good making her way through this layered Big Apple, I found myself forgetting that she’s who we should actually care about.
Even the most outstanding person here, the bad guy Grigor, has a big fat asterisk following his entry on the “Well-Developed Character” list. Because he’s conniving and savvy as heck, but a lot of the interest around him is his mysterious origins and end goals. I already fear that once we truly know him or what he’s up to, some of that appeal and magic might be lost. Still, his role here as “gangster rocket scientist” is generally effective as a good villain can do heaps for a middling story.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
But characters and motivations aren’t why I keep coming back to Dark Honor. No, that’s for the COVID stuff. After an iffy-but-promising start in #1, and a slightly better showing in #2, COVID’s presence really picks up in #3. Mainly, it becomes the reason for people’s shitty behaviors, like those aforementioned doomsday shindigs hosted by the rich/underworld folks. COVID is basically shorthand for “things are about to end, so let’s stop caring and go nuts.” And if you recall, that sentiment was huge across the pandemic — I for one emerged from this global catastrophe (if just such an exit is ever possible) feeling like I’d seen the truly angry, uncaring true face of humanity.
That’s exactly what happens here — a kind of “disco in a burning building” effect that speaks to the robust psychic trauma we’re still grappling with as people put their own shitty behavior first before public safety and decency. It’s a great way for Dark Honor to respect the extreme loss of COVID while pointing some much-needed fingers at the people who got even richer, screwed others over, and/or generally acted like children for a span of two to three terrible years. But, hey, it was all a plandemic, right?! (There’s also this gimmick of gangsters posing as EMTs, and it just works so perfectly to capture the mood and dynamic across COVID.)
Courtesy of Image Comics.
It’s also worth noting that the COVID material also did a lot to make the stuff with The Hundred (the bodyguards of the Five Families, of which Rain is sort of a member?) feel more real and grounded. There was this faint sense that COVID kicked down the doors to reality, and so why wouldn’t we have this vaguely mystical-feeling group of warriors protecting gangsters? It’s all just furthers a commitment by the writers (Brian DeCubellis, K.S. Bruce, and Ethan Sacks) to fully embrace COVID. It took a few issues, but it really feels like it’s the sturdiest vein across Dark Honor, and the thing that gives it a sense of value and purpose.
It’s all just timely enough, while also feeling novel in its critiques and observations, to hit us right where we need it and to really get the world thinking about this global event in a more meaningful way. Because, and I don’t know if you heard, feckless people never learned their lessons and are doubling down in a big way. (That sentiment is mirrored/furthered by Rain during a game of cards in a scene that is just utterly perfect in its tone and delivery.)
Courtesy of Image Comics.
The question begs: Is the COVID stuff worth sticking with Dark Honor for the last two issues? And, to be totally frank, yes it is. Because while the book is only half-inspired in some parts, that pandemic dissection continues to grow more strategic, impactful, and downright compelling. Again, maybe it’s taken time to really flourish, but it’s such an interesting function of Dark Honor that it’s enough to keep my interest.
Maybe it’s not enough to cure this book’s true ails, but I will gladly suffer the sniffles if we can break through to the other side into something truly meaningful about what happened when mankind was tested like we’d never been before. Now, take one of these issues with food, don’t operate any heavy machinery, ignore the urge to spit up during certain pages, and hopefully you’ll feel better in no time. Or, at the very least, a little less bored.
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