MONOCYTE#3
Story By: MENTON3 and Kasra Gahnbari
Art By: MENTON3
Review Score: 9.5/10
This issue starts out with Grod finding New found power he desperately craved by using threats and psalm quotes . The same group of Olignostics who taunted him now fear and revere him due to MONOCYTE destroying the former source of their power. The Conduit and The Sheperd are gone and Grod sees this as his opportunity to seize control of his brothers and have them adhere to his beliefs and teachings. It’s an interesting twist right out of the gate showing us that these ideals aren’t set into stone and that Kasra and MENTON3 have a lot more story to tell with these characters.
We are then taken to a scene between The Marquis and Beatrice.The Marquis demands that Beatrice tell her why she hesitated when seeing MONOCYTE and Beatrice uses this opportunity to give us our first glimpse into who the man Augustus was before we knew him as Azrael’s Avatar of Death MONOCYTE.This is a great scene showing us a torn and troubled man searching for his twin but instead we see how our title character is born. It’s a creepy and haunting sequence that does just enough to show you that Azrael has been working behind the scenes longer then you think. Some people may not agree with humanizing MONOCYTE but I think it’s a great lead into the last part of this issue.
The Antedeluvians and Moses prep for the arrival of our title character and are increasingly confident that they are safe. When MONOCYTE arrives at the palace of the Antedeluvians he is met at the gate by Moses who knows that MONOCYTE desperately seeks death for everyone including himself. Moses solution? He creates an Avatar for life in a double page spread that is simply beautiful , frightening , and as original a creature design that I’ve ever seen. MONOCYTE has finally met something that he may fear and is backhanded clear across the barren wasteland .As his armor and helmet fly off we are left with a final page shot of Augustus the man…wondering if MONOCYTE exists anymore and how our title character will survive next issue.
MENTON3’s art is some of the most intricately painted and thought out work I’ve ever seen. He creates such visually dynamic scenes that they are asking to be ripped out of the book and putup on your wall. There is a consistency to his work that border lines on the obsessive and it shows in the high quality of his work. Again I especially enjoyed the final 3 pages and character design he came up with for the Avatar of life. It should also be noted that the 2 backup stories in this issue are nto filler .Instead they do a great amount to help move the story further along as the slaves of both the Olignostics and Antedeluvians are starting to fight back for their survival.
Leading off this issue quoting psalms may seem like a very risky thing to do in the world of comics , however MONOCYTE tends to be the rare exception to the rule . It’s a first in its medium to do something so large in scope , so intentional that you are willing to devour every bit of information you can to gain a fresher perspective on the source material.Don’t sleep on this book .In a day and age where things are always over spoken , over explained and ill planned , its nice to find a book that rewards its readers for allowing the creative team to tell a story .It’s the rare book that seamlessly combines art and a new concept perfectly together.After all isn’t that what we started reading comics for in the first place.
Mike DeVivo
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