Killmonger #3 Review

Writer: Bryan Edward Hill / Artist: Juan Ferrerya / Marvel Comics Okay, so I was pretty rough on last week’s issue of Killmonger. Don’t get me wrong…the book was deserving of every comment I made. While I wanted this to be a good book, the cons are vastly outweighing the pros and have been since the end of Issue #1. This book started out with so much promise. It then took a misguided leap of faith like Sandra Bullock careening down a violent river blindfolded and hoping for the best. Now, to be fair, Issue #3 does feature Bryan Edward Hill trying to atone for some of the sins he committed in #2, so it’s not quite as bad. However, being better than Issue #2 isn’t a very high bar to clear. Erik and the hit squad he’s interning for have an unexpected visit from a notable Kingpin crony and things go awry. There are a couple of fun things that happen in the process of this book. There’s a couple of pages devoted to a pretty fun action sequence even if it doesn’t amount to much and actually cops out on the body count considering the adversary involved.

There’s also the aspect of this story I wish Hill would have focused more on: Erik’s relationship with the goddess Bast. The lion’s share of exposition in this issues focuses on a lot of textbook “sympathetic villain” camp that we really didn’t need. However, the idea of Killmonger turning his back on the god of his homeland in favor of his hatred of the Black Panther is potentially compelling. Meanwhile, the book’s favored nar…