REVIEW: DC Mech #3

DC Mech #3 has arrived and doesn’t let you catch your breath as this action packed series hits its half way mark.  Not one, not two, but three major action sequences take place in this issue alone! Complimented with plenty of story driven dialogue and developments, DC Mech continues to be a fun and exciting book.

The cover art also continues to be just as fun and exciting. Baldemar Rivas does an excellent cover debut of Darkseid as he Omega Beams our five gathered mech suit defenders. An ominous Boom Tube dominates the skies creating a striking background to the colorful heroes. Entitled “The Anti-Life of Apokolips!”, the cover gives a great tease as to what’s in store inside.

Dan Mora continues his schematic variants with the Wonder Woman Mech this issue. Mora’s color scheme is very stark and striking as he details how this particular suit is operated along with the capabilities and origins of its weapons. These thematic variants add a level of ambiance to this series and I look forward to them each month.

Ricardo Lopez Ortiz’s variant focuses on Darkseid’s massive presence. The ever imposing and undaunting stance of Darkseid is accompanied by his gigantic mech as well as the planet Apokolips itself. It’s been no secret from the first issue that Darkseid is the main villain of the story and Ortiz treats us to a poster worthy display of his inevitability. 

Dan Mora’s variant gets a bit of a remix for a retailer incentive cover. The Wonder Woman Mech gets recolored in yellow which gives it a more sketch aesthetic while Diana is prominently super imposed in the foreground. The hexagonal background design adds a familiar play mat feel to anyone who’s played a certain tabletop game that involved giant mechanised warriors. 

Baldemar Rivas, along with colorist Mike Spicer, is absolutely amazing on every page. The way Rivas depicts motion as well as his stylised usage of sound really bring this issue to life. It’s hard not to visualise this as it’s own animated feature while reading it. With so much going on this issue it’s easy to let the art carry you away, but if  you pace yourself you’ll catch more and more homages to different mech inspired anime. Spicer appears to use every color imaginable to accentuate each scene.  Each panel is practically its own mini splash page that really gets the adrenaline pumping. 

Kenny Porter, lettered by Tom Napolitano, doesn’t let up in DC Mech #3 as our heroes go from one confrontation with Darkseid’s forces to another. No moment is wasted as we get cameos of The Blackhawks, Steve Trevor, and several well known DC villains who now swear loyalty to Darkseid.  Unfortunately, this newly found team of mech fighters have a lot to learn about working together and their encounters don’t go as planned. 

These moments of discord allow for some great dialogue scenes as we get to know the subtle differences these characters have from their more familiar counterparts. Porter expertly depicts a version of Kal-El that still feels the weight of the world on his shoulders without the temperament of Clark Kent. It’s also a version of Kal-El that has been on his own for a long time and has trouble relying on or utilising the strength of others. This ultimately sets up the final few pages as Kal’s hubris gets the best of him and we see a unique deployment of Darkseid’s Omega Beams. The final two pages give us the last of this issue’s surprise cameos and a small moment of reprieve until next month. 

With such an full throttled, action packed issue it’s hard to believe this series is half-way over. Porter, Rivas, Spicer, and Napolitano really know how to pack a lot into a book without it feeling too dense, making DC Mech #3 one of the more fun issues on the stands right now.