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Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games #3
Reviewed by Patrick Hayes aka PatBorg
The covers: Jeff Zornow does both covers. Cover
A has Espinoza in a small room coming upon a clutch of 22 dog
sized dinos. By using the bright light of the flashlight to
highlight the trouble our hero is in makes for a solid cover.
Also, by using blues instead of blacks to reveal the dinos below
and above allows readers to see all the peril. Nicely done.
Cover RI is the same as A, sans colors. It's good, but the
coloring really makes this cover pop. Overall grades: A
A and RI B.
The story: This is an action oriented issue
that is the best issue yet, though there are only five pages
with dinosaurs. A nice summary on the inside front cover bring
any new readers up to speed, and things do go really quickly in
this story by writer Erik Bear, with story consultant Greg Bear.
Espinoza leads the assassin away from Doctor White and into a
nifty setting never seen before, but one that's quite logical in
Jurassic Park. A minor interlude with some never before seen
dinosaurs leads to a major mano a mano battle. Not much story,
but some pretty solid action. I was surprised by the ending: so
soon? This was the first issue that I've been happy with, but
some more dinos in my dino-comic would have made it even better.
Overall grade: B
The art: I have been really disappointed with
artist Jorge Jimenez's efforts so far, since I'm not happy with
the decision to go manga style for Jurassic Park. But, as with
the story, in this issue things have improved. It's still
Japanese-y, especially when the assassin is around, but there
aren't any strange angles or oddly focused panels as in the
past. In fact, the last nine pages are very good. Very good!
Often in a fight scene it's hard to see where each combatant is,
let alone in relationship to the other. Jimenez offers a clean,
clear layout that I completely understood where each person was.
I'm still not too happy with some of the faces (check Espinoza
on Page 6 and then look at Page 7, and then go to Page 9. This
is the same guy/). Still, this is a major improvement.
Overall grade: B
The colors: The previous issue was too darkly
colored: even though it was night, it was hard to see the art.
Studio C-10 has also stepped up their game this issue. Purples
are used a lot to denote the night and it's pretty successful,
until it bleeds into the black sky, such as on Pages 18 and 19.
It gets so dark that on Page 21 the top panel's setting is so
dark that the final page of this comic is a surprise, not
because of what happens but the realization as to where the
character were at. I'd like the comic to brighten up more.
Overall grade: B-
The letters: I'm still happy with Shawn Lee's
contributions, especially the new sounds for the new dinosaurs.
Creepy cool! Overall grade: A+
The final line: This was the best issue so far,
but in the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, "You do have some dinosaurs
in your dinosaur park?" Overall grade: B
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