This is an issue of chasing. Chasing a dream? No, not really. It’s just really thumbless bums chasing thumb-ed bums for some dumb reason. Ok, not really a dumb reason, it just sounded too good to not include that. Consider Kingdom Bum #3 the politics issue. Though we’ve had politickin’ before, this issue is saturated with it and, while it’s intriguing, the story does seem to slow down noticeably. Another one bites the dust. Another bum death that has nothing to do with the story ushers us into the, um… story. But the sporadic bum deaths are nothing to panic over when compared to the thumb chopping maniacs threatening the entire community’s way of life. Masked in the unending scheming and planning comes an actual act of war but character motivations are still murky. Sure we know people don’t want to die and want to keep both their thumbs but those seem like general human problems, not driving forces for story progression.

This murkiness I speak of manages to find its way into other areas of the story as well and even the artwork. For example: a thumbless bum who was just the subject of a thumbless joke magically appears to have both thumbs a page later or even the assertion that too many rules and regulations inside the bum society would turn their world into the world of the home’d and job’d, implying that their homelessness was a conscious choice. I know this story isn’t supposed to be taken seriously despite the dramatic events, but some of these inconsistencies stood out enough to separate themselves from the story itself.

This is a significantly slower issue than the previous ones. It’s much more political and attempts to stir the intrigue pot with plotting and organization but never quite fully realizes that potential. Despite that, the penultimate issue does setup a dramatic finish that should be a worthy romp to close out a fun story.

Score: 3/5

Kingdom Bum #3 Writers: Adam Wollet, Rick Marshall Artist: Jon Reed Publisher: Action Lab/Danger Zone Price: $3.99 Release Date: 2/17/16 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital