The Danger Club is reduced to a bunch of sidekicks, both good and evil, after all of their mentors went off to space and never returned. Now, the team tries to track down the remaining villains to help them stop a genocidal threat.
Unfortunately, after building up an intriguing premise filled with mystery, this issue of Danger Club reveals all the mystery with little pay-off. Despite a traumatic and shocking ending that seems to be a staple for this series, this issue was a huge disappointment, which only increases since the two previous issues could have set-up a much more surprising twist.
The mystery about the sidekicks mentors is revealed, and that is the most disappointing flaw not only in this series, but in any comic I have read in a while. Unfortunately, with that revelation, the entire series feels like a major disappointment. It also, despite being built-up during the first issue, felt like an extremely rushed revelation that could have been much more complex and shocking than it was. It also seems very clichéd for a title that promised so much creativity but only delivered disappointment. Though some readers may enjoy this twist, it still feels like a cop-out. There were some shocking moments in this issue. Towards the end, one character dies in a shocking manner. Unfortunately (yeah, there are a lot of "unfortuantely's" in this issue), the downside is that character had no character development beforehand, so more tight-lipped critics aren't going to care, but I thought the fact that it came out of left field so far made it shocking enough to override the fact that we only just learned their name in this issue. These moments remind me how tense this series can be – just apparently not where it matters.
There's a lot going on in this issue. Too much.
There are too many characters. Our dying character with little development is not alone. Rarely are the multiple sidekicks on panels given more than one line unless they are Kid Vigilante or a newer, clearly NOT Nick Fury rip-off, Jack Fearless. A new character, Moonlight, is also introduced, but his character may have been wasted on development when you read the end of this issue. The pervy-looking "Uncle Sam" American Spirit also returns and sticks with the creepy vibe he had last issue, but I'd rather him just be a vicious dictator and not be involved in a twist introduced in this issue.
There's too many different things going on at once and not spaced out properly. With the exception of the first pages coherently switching from one situation and characters to another, about half way through the issue the pages start to get very confusing with every other panel. The chaotic advantage this art had in the first issue is starting to get tiresome, as are the pages completely devoid of text which are not as emotional as the traumatic events from the first two issues.
While the artwork is still unique with bobble headed characters, several quirks about Eric Jones's artwork hurt the creative appeal. The characters all have very similar designs, some looking like palette swaps of the others (yes, Moonlight, you are clearly a Kid Vigilante wannabe). Almost every background is a basic colored background with no detail and blinding lighting, un-thankfully thanks to colorist Michael "Rusty" Drake.
Danger Club #3 still has unique but now greatly flawed artwork. Danger Club's concept has a disappointing outcome that makes me feel like I wasted my money on the first two issues. Unless there are more twists to redeem the issue, Danger Club only has one real danger: of being the most disappointing title of the year.
An all-around nerdette, I’m a comic book connoisseur, horror aficionado, video game addict, anime enthusiast and an aspiring novelist/comic book writer. I am the head of the comic book department and the editor-in-chief of Entertainment Fuse. I also write and edit articles for Comic Frontline. I am also an intern at Action Lab Entertainment, a comic book publisher at which I edit comic book scripts, help work on images in solicitations and help with other comic book related project. My own personal website is comicmaven.com.
