Sideways #3 Review

I heard Paul Giamatti is really good in this one

Written by: Kenneth Rocafort, Dan DiDio, and Justin Jordan

Art by: Kenneth Rocafort, Daniel Brown, and Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: April 11, 2018

I've been waiting for this book to just move along already and unfortunately, my wishes have not been granted. According to Eric Shea's patented "Three Issue" rule, this book should be on the chopping block for those of you picking this up. Read on to find out why!

We pick up directly where the last issue left off, with a crazed killer name Killspeed showing up at the hospital where Derek, his mother, and Ernie are all present. After checking if his loved ones are still breathing, Derek opens a rift as Killspeed runs to attack him. She escapes him and Derek opens a whole bunch of rifts in order to see where she has gone. This is a pretty pivotal moment for Derek since he's expanding the scope of his powers in a way he hadn't really thought of before. He finds her in Gotham, which isn't far from where he is apparently and confronts her.

Here we get to some frustrating stuff. It turns out that Killspeed is actually one of the speedsters from the Speed Force Storm in the first arc of The Flash: Rebirth by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico. She also had leukemia before getting her powers, so somehow using her powers makes her disease spread. This isn't an original concept. The current Mighty Thor run by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman is tackling the very same concept, but in this case, I don't understand how the Speed Force is essentially killing her. Her powers should heal wounds. Gorilla Grodd is vying for the Speed Force right now so his disease can be cured! It makes no sense whatsoever. And I'll end the spoiler talk here.

This issue just didn't work at all. Judging from the ending of the first issue, I never thought that we'd deal with a new villain so soon when he have a goofy cosmic villain terrorizing our protagonist first. In addition to the pacing problems, this issue doesn't even have a full page count for the main story! Whatever story we get is concluded in about 16 or so pages, and the rest of the issue, and I'm not making this up, recaps the previous two issues while also providing a bit more context as to how Derek got his powers. This kind of has to be seen to be believed. Weird Science readers.

The art continues to be good. I like Kenneth Rocafort's style but there's something about it that I can't quite put my finger on. I mentioned this in my previous review but I think his pencils need stronger inking.

Bits and Pieces:

I gave this series a chance and it hasn't lived up to its initial promise in the slightest. The plotting is pretty bad and the art could have used some more work. Everything just feels like a mess, making this the weakest New Age title by far.

5/10