Review: A Slower Pace After Breakneck Speed In ‘Commanders In Crisis’ #3

Who killed Empathy? Time is running out for the Crisis Command to find the murderer and save this world. The team splits up to look for answers. Fortunately, they were able to resurrect Empathy for a short amount of time to streamline the investigation.

Bringing Empathy back to life feels like a bit of a cop out at first. It’s pretty easy to identify the suspect when the victim can tell you what happened from beyond the grave. Writer Steve Orlando makes this work by connecting this to Frontier, the leader of the Crisis Command. It’s far from your usual detective work. Instead, it’s more personal and provides a few moments of peace with the chaos looming all around them.

After the action of the first two issues, Commanders in Crisis #3 is more subdued. It fills in some of the basics and fleshes out this investigation. More importantly, we learn a bit more about each of the characters as they’re what is really driving this story. Sure, you’ll come for the world-ending action, but you’ll stay for this compelling work.

Letterer Fabio Amelia has the unenviable task of guiding us through a whole lot of dialogue, but does so with some deft precision.

Artist Davide Tinto brings so much life and personality to each of the heroes. They look and feel like real people. These are not the muscle-bound, square-jawed folks you usually see in the capes and tights crowd. They appear more natural and well-rounded. In an issue that’s largely talking and exposition, Tinto uses a wide variety of angles to keep the reading experience interesting.

Commanders in Crisis is every bit the super hero comic, with a bright, vibrant color palette from Francesca Carotenuto. This world is full of life, which makes the threats it faces all the more dire. Batman would feel out of place in this book.

Since we jumped right into a universe shattering event in the first issue, somewhere along the line we would have to go back and flesh out the characters a bit more. That’s what this issue of Commanders in Crisis provides, along with some foundation to move the plot ahead. There’s a lot of ground to cover since this is a whole new world with all new characters. We’re only a quarter of the way through this series and there’s a solid foundation laid now.

Commanders in Crisis #3 from Image Comics is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.