Unfortunately Spy Bounce 3 isssss a very mixed bag for me digesting it. Don't get me wrong; the art design is beautifully perfect in its portrayal of mood, motion, ticklies, hotness, sharp yet spy evoking lettering. Visually it really is something to behold and all that collaboration is like a concerto in its genius. I think where the big problems crop up are on the creative direction side of things.
Pros: The escalation rescue and cover art gave me this Peter Laird/Kevin Eastman vibe I really really dug. The narration gave a nice feel of tension. Ideas here and there worked, some surprises worked. You stuck the ending for sure. The tickling itself was well done when taken in a isolated way to appreciate how they're represented in such variety.
Cons: There are way, way too many ideas trying to be stretched over a short comic sort of length. Like, when I continue to read this it screams "this whole one needs to be longer, provided a written companion piece or split into a two parter to cover the ground properly. It's very messy, very chaotic. It feels like the kitchen sink to the point of everything AND very little actually *taking place*. I dug the intentions of future setup which are usually handled surprisingly well considering content and everything, but I feel like it really sabotaged several aspects of this particular issue. It's like Iron Man 2, if that makes sense.
There was a good *amount* of tickling, but it was super super rushed and no moments of real personality to take advantage of what is supposed to be taking place. Almost literally no psychological, tickling, character insight. No built, earned golden moments except some of the tickling on display and the Deet gag was a clever touch. I don't think you can really only suggest and implicate this amount of things without taking the reader mentally there. I LOVED the concepts suggested of interrogation and desperation (and the precious secrets), but it didn't at all *feel* like those things. The tickling felt almost incidental to the LUNGING forward progression.
I didn't experience escalation so much as like scenery if you were stopping to admire the northern lights. Beautiful no doubt about it. What's taking place under them, though? I think you can pull psyche outs really really really well, but I must be honest and say there were too many in the overall context and it's rough for the reader to try to have that emotional investment in what's going on. Sure, they're the legendary Bounce Spies. Displayed like this, though, it almost feels like, "blurblurblurticklingblur BUT REALLY THIS OMG" When you don't have the advantage of novel or text form to help flesh things out in a naturally creative way (I'm looking at you MTJ), the "J/Ks, psyche, suggestsuggestsuggest NEXT NEXT NEXT!" can completely work against you.
The top two biggest disappointments was the awesome voice clarity of the characters from the last issue like The Plume being vapidly gone in this one. Even in the freshly introduced ones. The only person that really sounds like themselves is Hailey and she's doing pretty much what she did in the last one. It feels as though the writing of this was right in the middle or right after tons of passion being poured into something else or multiple things. Food for thought. The other top two thing is the feeling of no emotional payoff continued from the last issue. There's very nice tickling, absolutely. But you left us off with very clear intended cliffhanger implications and didn't do much at all with it (in an earned fashion). The reason why "fading away" worked so hotly and superbly in the Nail Biter novels is because the strength of the moments, characters and tickling were not at all sacrificed to progress to the whatever the next thing was.
I think if you were going to introduce us to potentially strong characters like The Plume and The Boss (their personality, their voice, their candor) their moments need to feel real. Here too many things feel superficial. They need to not feel like cutouts of themselves. Not capitalizing on Jane and Plume and at least saving that encounter for an honest to God *encounter* has to be a tippy top disappointment in all the series I've ingested over time. That steaming hot, fresh, new element dynamic was too cool to reduce to hardly a footnote. Thats the comic equal to saying stay tuned to pay to see the consequences for this character and then showing a new character or two as half ideas. I get taking advantage of imagination, but I really believe it went too far. You tossed two awesome amazing scenes of Andi and Jane to the curb to repeat what you did last issue with Hailey. Thats the first time Ive actually felt betrayed by one of your works. That plume/Jane encounter could've been one of the ultra mega steamiest, coolest, FRESHEST, UNIQUE scenes in all of your fiction up to this point. New classic potential. And the Boss and Andi? It was so anonymous. No identity to it.
So my ultimate verdict is it looks friggin uncanny, conceptually there are a lot of things to like or love, but I've gotta say it's the most disappointing Bandito entry to this point. And I feel like I've gotta give that honesty both ways. I'd rather have waited a month or two more for extra creative cushion and passion building. I'm speaking as a big fan, if I were you guys I'd consider letting Bandito do (have time for or get help with) at least written companion pieces to do justice to what builds in your issues. If there's too much going on or it's not being given the proper focus, you're risking bypassing great iconic things right under your nose. And I'd hate to see things completely trend that way for the sake of the comic medium and trying to satisfy too many voices/cooks. That said, I completely love and admire the dedication and ability brought forth in each PDF.
Gawd bless, live long, thank you
