Spencer & Locke #3 Review

Up and AtomWriter: David PeposeArtist: Jorge Santiago, Jr.Publisher: Action Lab ComicsRelease Date: June 21, 2017Cover Price: $3.99

Going into the third issue of Spencer and Locke I’m hoping to get payoff from the cliffhanger from the first issue. I was a bit disappointed to not get any as the cliffhanger itself came out of nowhere. That being said the previous issue was fine on its own, but I think I’m going to need something on the delivery end or the book is going to seem more like a set of ideas and not a collective story. So does it deliver on the first issue? Or do we get another issue of a fun idea but not in service of the book as a whole? Let’s find out.

We kick off, as we come to expect, on the cartoon strip side of things as Spencer and Locke are playing some fun make believe before Locke’s drunk mother comes into the room. The cartoon takes a dark turn as the mother comes into the room and leaves us with the impression that Locke possibly killed his mother in self-defense.

Afterward we pick up shortly after the last issue with Locke abducted by a doctor and strapped down for an experiment in drug potency. This is where this issue takes a turn as we spend most of the rest of the issue in an addled drug fever that lines up with the character Locke was roleplaying as at the start of the issue: Rocketman Reynolds.

There are some interlocking scenes with Spencer as he searches for Locke amid his breakdown in order to save him from having a massive heart attack. It really starts to bring up some questions about the reality of Spencer that first spawned in the previous issue but before too long those thoughts are somewhat put aside in lieu of a twist that comes near the end. Upon another twist that comes after that possibly gives us follow-up to the original cliffhanger from the first issue, but not without causing some confusion of its own.

Overall there isn’t really a whole lot to talk about in this issue as it’s a fun drugged out issue, but it’s hard not to see it as a lot of filler. We get a look at some more of Locke’s backstory and the implications of it, along with some delivery on something that upset me a lot on issue 2. I can’t help but feel like there is an idea for individual issues, but the strings that bind them together aren’t very strong or aren’t very well implemented. What surprised and delivery we do get is hard to see as much more than confusing, and the times it has happened we haven’t had follow-up on it to make it less so. So far I’m starting to see a mess of confusion and deliberate deception held together by small ideas and a fun concept.

Bits and Pieces:

We eventually get some delivery on something dropped in issue one, but this issue is hard to see as much more than filler chalk full of confusion and deliberate deception.

6.4/10