By Dustin Cabeal

One of my “Best of 2016” picks returns with a new issue, but has it managed to capture a place on our future “Best of 2017” list? The Fist, for the unfamiliar, is a story taking place in an intergalactic fight arena in which several great comic book homages are fighting. Enter The First and his wife, who is a ship. They’re deserters from the galactic military and as such, The Fist’s sisters, Legs, have been sent to retrieve him.

This issue picks up with The Fist about to throw in the towel, until a young boy that’s come to idolize him transforms and begins fighting The Legs for him. Meanwhile, he gets his wife up and running again and charges up with his secret weapon.

The issue is fun as hell which is The Fist’s strength as a comic. What’s unfortunate about this issue is that it’s a bit too frantic. It feels as if it’s trying to get to the end of the conflict rather than spread it out. The pacing ends up being too quick as everything is over as soon as it begins, which is just a bummer because it seemed like the battle could have been bigger and better.

The humor is still there and pretty damn wondrous. I can’t tell you all the visual gags since that would spoil it, but there are more than a few good ones. In particular, anything involving the ship is great. The Macho Man inspired character steals the issue this time around. Whereas he was a bit too “on” in the first issue, he’s paced perfectly in this issue. The dialogue and gags were great once again, but the damn pacing did hurt the story this time around.

The artwork was also a bit off. It looks improved in some places, and rough in others. It’s cleaner in places, but the style seems toned down a lot from the previous issues. Sometimes there’s a lot of detail, and other times there’s none, which is the same statement I have for the backgrounds as well. Overall, it’s still a good-looking book, but it does look like creator Jordan Kroeger is going through some growing pains, which isn’t bad since that’s the great thing about comics is watching creators grow and change through their work. The coloring is still intense, psychedelic and wonderful.

You can pick up your copy of The Fist right now. The issue is on Gumroad, and you can pay what you want. Hopefully, you’ll kick Kroeger some cash, so he’ll keep going on what’s been one of the most entertaining comics I’ve read in years. The next issue looks to start a new arc and adventure for the series, and I for one would like to read more.

Score: 4/5

The Fist #3
Creator: Jordan Kroeger
Self-Published – Link to Buy!