Is It Good?
I can't tell if Thorne is writing these stories to be intentionally impenetrable or if it's happening by accident. Either way, it's working.
The issue starts with Sara (aka Flashback or Rewind... she hasn't decided yet) seeing a vision of a large battle between Milestone characters and a demonic-style villain. There's no setup, you don't know who any of these people are unless you're already well-versed in Milestone characters, and then Sara is abruptly dropped out of the vision two minutes before the explosion at the end of the last issue. "Jarring" doesn't cover it.
Next, multiple word balloons and dialog exchanges in the first third of the book are in Spanish without any translation. This is where an editor should have stepped up and added the translations in a caption or had Thorne write the dialog in English with brackets to indicate *translated from Spanish. If you're not a Spanish speaker, you'll miss half of what's said in the first third of the issue.
Back to now, Rolando and Carlos clean up at The Bunker, Carlos's nondescript safe house to get cleaned up after their excursion in the sewers. There, other super-powered individuals arrive and discuss forming a crew to stop Holocaust. This part of the issue is fine since the crew's reason for coming together is apparent and properly motivated, but the entire scene lacks weight for what should be an important moment. Then the team goes off to find and stop Holocaust, resulting in a battle at one of the local police stations where Holocaust first arrives to recruit Bull.
There's not much to the plot in this issue. Sara has a vision, the team assembles, and they confront Holocaust. Thorne doesn't do much to inject emotion or big developments into the plot. The biggest story point in this issue is the assembly of a new team, but it's way too casual and quick, lacking any gravity for what should be an epic moment in superhero history.
At the very least, the art by ChrisCross, Castro, and Quintana is solid. The lines are clean, the coloring is excellent, and the lettering (even the Spanish dialog) is easy to read.
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About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Blood Syndicate #3 brings the new crew together to fight Holocaust before he burns the city down. The profuse use of Spanish without translation will make this book difficult to read for some, the opening prologue is jarring and poorly set up, and the big moment of superheroes deciding to form a crew feels small and cavalier.
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