THE MASSIVE #3

In a remote village in the Aleutian Islands, the crew of the Kapital, on the run from Siberian pirates, reconsiders their core mission as pacifists and conservationists. In this unpredictable and often violent world, should they be more? Narratives and story lines converge as the past catches up with the present, and in quiet, unassuming Unalaska, USA, a new mission is forged.

* Features exclusive bonus material!

The Massive is a book to keep an eye on in 2012.”—IGN

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Kristian Donaldson
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: J.P. Leon

Price: $3.50
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 1.3%

Reviews

UserAddedSpoilers
Myncy08/08/12NoRead Review
481
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.0
 
Users who pulled this comic:

Comments

  1. After reading the first issue I was a little un-certain if this was one for me, very slow pace. But then when I got #2 I re-read #1 & it worked really well, why did I doubt it?
    This along with Mind MGMT are two really great new series by Dark Horse & the bonus is they’re both ongoing!

    • I hear you, after reading #3 it seems I’m falling more in love with this series with each issue. And while I haven’t been as into Mind MGMT, The Massive and The Creep made this a great week for Dark Horse in my book.

  2. I’m not sure about this book. I usually like Wood’s stuff but this is a make or break issue for me.

    • Partly because #3 wraps up the first arc, partly because I need to spend less on comics, I think I’m done with this one now. I enjoyed it but not quite enough.

    • I was really on the fence going in to this issue. I ALMOST love it, but the pacing is a little slow for my taste. All along, I’ve felt the art was strong, but this issue left me shaking my head because of one panel. There’s a point where a character fires a bullet. The bullet is shown in flight and it still has the jacket on it! Did anyone else catch this? I was shocked because of the level of detail they’ve tried to achieve in this title. I felt a little bad for Donaldson, because he probably spent a bit of time getting the bullet just right.

      Ultimately, after three issues, if you’re still not sure you like it, why keep buying it?

    • ^ agree with the end statement

  3. A very political book

    • You know I felt the same way at first but when I stopped and really thought about it I’m not so sure this book is that political. If someone asked me to point to something in the book that was overtly political I’m not sure what I’d point to.

    • The way I see it, the characters we’ve met so far all have very strong personal politics that will inevitably influence their behavior (it’s why they’re out on this boat in the first place, as far as we know), but I don’t think the events of the plot have had any kind of political bent so far.

    • @Ken: Agreed totally.

    • Maybe “social” is a better word than political here…? It definitely seems like more of an exploration of what societies become under cataclysm than having a certain political bent or even exploring politics, at least so far.

    • Maybe I read a little too much into it as far as politics go. I also view the book as a commentary on humanity: we will always be at conflict even in the wake of cataclysm and the possibility of extinction.

    • Hell, we have nuclear weapons and are sending the climate into a global meltdown. Nearly a quarter of all the countries in the world are involved in a war of some kind right now. I’d say we’re pretty much always on the verge of being in the wake of a cataclysm.

  4. I like how dense this book is. Each issue is just overflowing with content, and it’s all interesting and informative. Love it.

  5. I’m on board. This is a unique book in the sea of capes, vampires and Avengers.

  6. Another really good issue, re-read all three together just makes it so much better (Can’t keep doing it thou, imagine it #32 came out & I re-read all 32 that would start to take its monthly toll), defo my POTW!

  7. Politics aside, this issue killed the series for me. The first two were pretty good, and I usually let myself go three to five issues before I decide on whether I continue a comic, or stop, barring a single issue that is either brilliant, or horrible.

    As far as story goes, it was entertaining in the first two issues. However, in this issue, it turned on itself. The three of the main characters arguing 2v1 that they don’t need weapons in a post apocalyptic, pirate infested ocean, finally to have one of the two arguing against it say, we don’t need weapons, but we will get a small arsenal. What? Jumping around like this seemed arbitrary. There were other points in the story that seemed like they were taking liberties, but they are spoilers, and I won’t go into it. All that though, I can accept. There was one specific thing that absolutely killed it for me.

    The art, what can I say. In the first two books, great, and I can’t say that the art is any different in the third, except for one thing. Ultimately, this is what killed it for me. Page 5, third panel down, on the left side, the picture of the bullet traveling through the air. The bullet, shell casing and all flying through the air, as if it all just jumps out the end of the barrel of a gun, still connected. In this day and age, this type of ignorance is unacceptable. This tore me out of the book, and actually made me a little angry. I had to stop reading and go to another comic I had yet to read, finish that one, and come back to this one. Really, the artist had such potential, and yet he drew this. A child knows this is not how a gun works, however the artist drew it that way, it got by any kind of editing they had for this book. How many people have to be stupid for something like this to make it to the stands? I count no less than eight people that had to look at this and let it by, with their names on the book. This is exactly what did it for me,

    If it were a much stronger comic, I may have been able to get by this, a MUCH, MUCH stronger comic. But I couldn’t have let it pass, I still would have written a carefully worded letter to dark horse explaining the basic mechanics of a bullet in a gun, as a child would understand it. But since this is a middling, at best, quality book, they can’t get away with it.

    • Could be, I posted that comment before he posted that on twitter. But I doubt it, I posted this exactly one minute before he posted his comment.

    • The more I look at it, the more likely it seems. Huh, that sucks… I was going to write an email, I guess that’s unnecessary now.

    • Ha! I wrote a comment about this, as well. Somehow I missed yours before writing it, or I would have tacked on to yours. I love how people completely jumped in your shit without knowing anything besides Wood’s vague tweet. The panel was a mistake, an honest one. You don’t want to read it anymore, you said why. No need for it to be a nasty breakup, right? Sounds like plenty of other people are still digging it.

    • Wait, I’m not sure that my last comment reads as being fully sympathetic towards you, Vidman. I am fully sympathetic towards you, Vidman.

    • Thanks Richard. I guess you are right though, It was just an honest mistake, but it was a mistake that didn’t have to be made, simply google, “how bullets work,” then read for three minutes. Boom, you are no longer ignorant. However, if a person chooses to stay ignorant, that’s fine too.

      It was simply a mistake that pulled me out of the story, and made me very aware that I was reading a fictional story. Like when you are watching a movie, and they make an error that is so obvious that you just have a hard time getting back into the story they are trying to tell.

      That’s all I am trying to say. Plus, I find it sad that this was the post that Wood saw, and he jumped on it the way he did. The same as the comment below by north72. If you haven’t had an issue with a movie or book that has made a mistake that pulls you out of the story, I would suggest that you read more, or watch more movies. If you do watch a lot of movies, and read a lot, and you have never had this happen, that’s just sad.

      Also, thanks again Richard, I got that you were being sympathetic from the first post!! 🙂 That’s another problem with message boards. Everything reads as an attack, even when you don’t mean it to be. I didn’t mean mine to be, I just meant to express my feelings about the book.

  8. I rated this comic a ‘5’ – its one of my new favourites – I love the tone, content, ‘universe’ and art. With that said, I can’t let this discussion go 🙂 If 100 people logged on to say that they don’t like the comic, and were asked why, and each said something to the effect of, ‘oh…its just not my cup of tea.’, the world would forgive them. Someone notices an annoying mistake, points it out as a reason he’s leaving a book he’s on the fence about, and the world is on his case (happily, not here, but in the above twitter link).

    People leave comics based on opinion and no one really bothers them. Someone leaves a comic based on a fact and he’s a villain.

    I didn’t notice the panel, and my kids don’t know how guns work. (and I love the comic). That doesn’t change the fact that a suprememly stupid factual mistake was made in a book who’s core is tying hypothetical events to a current world. While I don’t agree, people have every right to feel that this sort of thing ‘compromises the illusion’.

    While I wish you guys would continue to buy the comic (because I like it and want its sales to be high), I respect your decision, not only to leave it, but to point to this – in ‘print’ – as the reason.

  9. I dropped this book last month because one of the skyscrapers in the Hong Kong scenes didn’t have the correct number of floors. I was born in Hong Kong and find the error inexcusable.

    • Come on, dude. Not really the same thing. You made me chuckle, though. High five!

      I showed the panel to my wife and asked her if anything seemed off. She didn’t see the gaffe. Mistakes were made. It probably isn’t the end of the world. I begrudge no one who will continue to enjoy this series. Personally, I would have been really impressed if Wood’s response was more along the lines of “D’oh!” instead of “Well excuuuuuuse me!” but I know these guys have a lot riding on their work and are very protective of it. I can’t fault them for it.

    • First, I’m not joking. Why do you think I’m joking? Secondly, seems like the same thing to me. We both saw art defects that lessened our enjoyment of the series and dropped the book.

    • Dropping an entire book purely because of a couple missing floors? That’s ridiculous.

  10. …but how could you tell? Weren’t some of the floors under water? 🙂

    • I took that into account, using the information provided. Also, with some of the buildings, its easy to tell the structure is off just by looking at them relative to the buildings around them.

      I dont doubt this is just an art thing… I think its unlikely that in the scripts Wood specified the number of floors for each and every building pictured. Just like I bet he didn’t ask the artist to draw a bullet with the shell still on it. But like the people above stated, its an inexcusable act and ruins the book overall.

    • Oh well – that’s certainly your right!
      I’m lucky – neither the bullet physics (which very many people seem to understand, and is fairly universal) nor the architecture (which fewer people will probably notice – and is localized to that single structure) are preventing me from loving this book! I hope you guys give it another chance.

      I actually hadn’t read DMZ (I know, probably in the minority here), and am currently reading Conan – based on these three issues, I think I’m going back buy the first trade of DMZ.

  11. What the heck is going on with you guys that are reading this book? I go into reading comics with a hefty helping of suspension of disbelief because comics are inherently unrealistic. Not photos, drawings. Not journalism, fictionalizing. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about guns and I didn’t notice the casing error, but now that it’s pointed out it’s obvious. Oh well, not a dealbreaker for me. Just like I didn’t pick up a copy of Guns & Ammo when I bought The Massive #3, I didn’t buy National Geographic or Traveller magazine when I got The Massive #2 so I didn’t expect the HK skyline to be photo-referenced.

    Here I am, the guy at the table in the middle of the room singing Kumbaya all by himself. Won’t you join on in?

Leave a Comment