Excellence #3 Drills Down on the Details: Review

Writer: Brandon Thomas / Artists: Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez, and Deron Bennett / Image Comics/Skybound Excellence is a comic all about the details. It demands of the reader the same kind of attentiveness that the creative team is showing, moment by moment, panel by panel. The world-building is second to none, but it is novelistic in the way it is built. I say that because you might want to give Issue #2 a re-read before diving into #3, when I read them back to back, the story slammed home. Three: Recoil This issue opens with Spencer tracking down illegal mages, who are using homemade unsanctioned wands. This is where it is important to read that intro page, that is on every issue but easy to overlook. There are rules to being a mage and consequences for breaking them. Remember these rules; 3 of the 4 come up in this issue.

There are also other violations, slipped in on other pages. Those are important too. Spencer has a violation — attempted theft of a classified object — which is what landed him on police detail instead of out protecting an utterly undeserving white person. His frenemy, Aaron is in the middle of the worst violation, romantic interaction with his charge. This presents Spencer with a chance. He can bring Aaron in and get his old status back, but is bringing your brother in for such a crime an honorable thing to do?

The Aegis really keeps these brothers at each other’s throats, and Spencer’s dad is no help at all. Whatever happened between Spencer and Aa…