The next installment of Resident Evil hits bookstores March 18th, which means more gloriously realistic gore with a running zombie infestation to chew on, but is it good?
Resident Evil, Vol. 3: The Marhawa Desire (Viz Media)
This issue is all about Bindi and the ever so delicate nature of a zombie uprising wanting to boil over into total chaos. Though Ricky is technically the protagonist, a large portion of this volume focuses on a flashback that reveals what Mother Garcia was up to and how it involved Bindi. Bindi has been helping the hooded woman and all is revealed in regards to these two. Unfortunately it takes up so much of the book it makes this volume slow and laborious.
Naoki Serizawa opens the book where we left off last with Ricky and his uncle Doug Wright facing the hooded woman. The resolution to this scene is very quick but lends itself to Bindi taking center stage. Unfortunately Serizawa then spends too much time fleshing out Bindi only to conclude her story by the end. The balance of the story isn’t quite there here and frustratingly doesn’t take a stance as to Mother Garcia being evil or good. Instead it feels like Serizawa is stretching the story out and trying to give characters meaning, but they’ll be cast out and killed anyway. The book ends with the story taking the title in a new direction entirely but if you didn’t see this coming you haven’t been watching zombie movies.
What’s going on with the breath?
Those of you excited to see Chris Redfield on the cover should know he only appears in the final pages and doesn’t make much of an impact here. It’s a bit of a deus ex machina, but it’s a surefire way to say this comic went from slow moving action and mystery into flat out action extravaganza.
The art continues to be incredibly detailed and gorey with lots of blood splatter and icky gooey deformed monster madness. Because much of the issue is taking place in a flashback without any zombies the gore is scaled back in this volume though. There’s one gratuitous shot of an agent’s ass later in the issue, which might be foreshadowing for more sexy shots in later volumes, but there’s some badass imagery of chicks who can kick ass in this volume to balance that out.
Is It Good?
While the story progresses this issue leaves a lot to be desired in the action department. That said Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire has opened itself up a bit and is changing gears, which is a welcome site for the series.
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