When it comes to bravery no size is the right size and this series has proven that. We’ve been privy to a very damaged man who fought in Vietnam and has come back to his hometown to enact vengeance. They’ve paid, but not all of them just yet, so here we are at issue #3 to see if they get their comeuppance. Is it good?
Big Man Plans #3 (Image Comics)
This issue opens with a flashback to Vietnam and it proves without a doubt that the protagonist is a hero. He turns on his fellow soldiers to prevent a Vietnamese child from being raped and he stops at nothing to ensure her safety. It’s a strong statement to make in a series that has been about showing no mercy to those who did you wrong in the past. Is he truly good, or does he just fight for the little guy? From there the issue cuts back to where we left off and he’s not doing so well since the last we saw him he was burned to a crisp by those he seeks vengeance on.
This is an issue of flashbacks it seems, as writers Eric Powell and Tim Wiesch weave in the pain our protagonist went through on the school yard and what he did to get revenge. It’s an interesting flow of events and it’s clear they are trying to tell a story that proves sometimes vengeance is the right thing to do. Either way it sets up the viciousness of the protagonist as positive which is important as otherwise we’d despise the guy.
She’s a little slow.
It helps that Eric Powell’s art shows him as a very unemotional and tormented man no matter the scene. His facial expressions are weathered and burned in. The man has lived through more pain than most which makes his enacting vengeance even more painful. He doesn’t take joy in ripping his enemies apart but does it as if it were his job. It must be done.
The art pops with great splashes, as solid red and orange fill the panels when the protagonist rips a new victim apart. The gory detail is quite nice for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing, but where Powell really shows his chops are the flashbacks. There are two in this issue that take place at different times, and you can tell immediately they are different just by the use of color. This also imbues a sense of tone which helps solidify where the protagonist is at each time in his life. One could argue the blue hues of the schoolyard when the protagonist was weak clash effectively with the splashes of red in the current timeline when vengeance is being enacted.
Brutal, but deserved.
Is It Good?
This is a strong revenge tale reminiscent of Kill Bill but of a more gruesome horror nature.
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