Before I begin… those are some 90s inspired Rob Liefeld teeth on that cover. I mean they don’t even line up which hey that’s real and all, but this is a comic and I really shouldn’t have to inject so much goddamn realism when looking at teeth. As for the comic, well did you read my last review? Because I have the same gripe with this issue… the tone is all over the place. I get that the story is supposed to be over the top action. That our hero can survive ridiculous events and that things like broken ribs only matter when there’s some down time in the story. I get that, I really do. But the emotional tone of this story is still a complete mess.

This issue starts off two years prior to the events so that a forgotten character can be introduced. Already I was sighing because if you can’t see exactly where this is going then you haven’t read enough comics or watched enough films. The trope is the “betrayed friend left for dead that didn’t die and is now back for revenge.” It’s a trope that makes zero fucking sense because if you sacrifice your life so that someone else can live through a fubar situation then you don’t get to be mad that they didn’t come back for you. That’s why you had to do what you did, so that at least one of you could get out. If they came back what’s the fucking point? It’s a terrible and shitty trope.

Which brings me to my next point… this series has gone for every basic plot device it can. Nothing is surprising because it’s all something you’ve seen or experienced in some form or another. Even the cliffhanger which yes I’m going to spoil because it’s straight out of the hero’s journey in which our hero that’s been unstoppable must fall and prove he’s human only this time he’s assumed dead when our “friend turned bad guy” lays a bunch of dynamite on him. Conveniently he puts dynamite into our dead female character’s mouth so we know she’s a goner for sure, but for Clandestino… “ah, I’ll just lay a few sticks on him.” Talk about fucking up the bad guy basics of making sure someone’s dead. Why don’t you just leave him his guns outside the door “because he won’t need them anymore.”

The story intentionally has the characters, specifically the underdeveloped antagonists, make bad decisions to further the story. For instance, Vilcun the dead friend, shoots Leena in the head, but Clandestino in the chest. Granted in the real world both are pretty fatal, but this is a comic book and if you show that someone is capable of a kill shot in one panel and not the other it basically makes them an idiot.

This is it for me. I gave this series three honest chances and while there was a glimmer of hope with the second issue, all of that has been flushed away in the third issue. The tone is the major thing that’s killing it as it will never decide if it’s serious or wacky and over the top. The plot points and lack of character development is hindering the rest of the story making it unenjoyable. There might only be one more issue left of this series, but I’m so uninterested that I’m not even going to bother finishing it.

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Clandestino #3 Creator: Amancay Nahuelpan Publisher: Black Mask Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 5/18/16 Format: Mini-Series; Print

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