Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Jeff Lemire
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: May 17, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99
After a second issue slump I’m hoping this third issue of
Royal City picks me back up and wraps me in its rural sadness. The family is
pretty well established at this point it’s just a matter of getting down to the
things that make them tick and possibly bring them together. So let’s jump in
and see where this third issue actually takes us.
Where the last issue seemed to focus on just Patty where it
really felt like we didn’t get a whole lot of information, I feel this issue
does the exact opposite. We get a lot of everyone and sprinkled in is a good
amount of tidbits of just more of the family’s ongoing issues.
We get Tara where at first she starts off with a dream where
she is looking for her father and when she finds him he is holding a baby where
he then starts to make the sound of an alarm clock. The place where Peter is
seems very similar to where we have seen him in the past where the houses are
radios. Beyond this we get some more information of Tara and her personal
issues. Her husband is now starting an uprising within the factory and may have
Tara’s real estate deal, and to a greater scale her marriage, in jeopardy.
Meanwhile we get Pat and the down-on-his-luck brother Richie
in the car together where we left them from the last issue. Richie learns of
his father’s stroke but he seems more interested in getting to work for once as
we learned in the last issue that he’s in need of money. As Richie bails out of the car we get a quick
glimpse of the mother as she and a priest pray over Peter. After, while she is
going for snacks, she is approached by another older man at which point she
storms off angrily. Giving the impression there was some infidelity in the
relationship before the stroke occurred.
The last little bit we get is with Patty as he is once again
pressured by his editor to get his book in or forfeit the advance and pay it
back. He catches a glimpse of a woman who seems to recognize Pat before she
turns and heads off the other way, but it seems as if Pat himself doesn’t
recognize her. He then heads into a diner to write as we learn even more of the
baggage Pat is carrying around with him.
Although this issue didn’t progress much, the emotional
impact was felt a lot more than the previous issue. With just hints of some
things while outright blurting out others, the story is doing a great job a
layering the intricacies of pain that is involved in this story. No character
is left untarnished and even after you think you know each characters
shortcomings they continue to go deeper.
My only real gripe is that I feel we’re not really progressing much. We
may uncover new issues within each character, but we still aren’t finding much
out about what is bringing them together or what exactly set them on this path
of sadness. When we continue to see glimpses of the younger brother or the
father in his other world we’re left wondering if this is meant for the long
haul or is there some kind of shorter arc working as well? It’s just hard to
tell where we’re going.
Bits and Pieces:
This issue still doesn’t progress the story overall but it
does what I’ve come to expect from Lemire and that’s instill a strong sense of
emotion and depression within its characters. We get more glimpses of the
individual character’s issues but still not much to mention on what is
happening in an overall sense.
7.5/10
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