By Garrett Hanneken

Familiarizing the audience with characters is an important factor in a story. It gives the readers a reason to care about the story and to care about the actions by the characters. Issue #3 of The Immortal Men focuses on this factor, but I am not sure if I am entirely sold on this somewhat late introduction.

As I noted, Issue #3 is about the characters and more on who they are. We are further introduced to The Immortal Men after we saw them fight in the previous issues which are beneficial for the story since it needed to slow down a bit. Not only do we get to know the heroes, but the issue spends some time on the villains and their plan for war.

Since the issue took a halt on the action from the previous issue it gave the series some time to breathe. However, I am not sure if this introduction came a bit too late. Regardless, the issue took the time to explain more on the heroes while leaving the inclusion of Caden Park a mystery.

Speaking of Caden, I still don’t find anything that makes him stand out in a positive fashion. He is obviously standing out from the rest but that is because he is confused and disoriented about everything. Being our protagonist, Caden has yet to make an impression on me.

Moving on to the art, Ryan Benjamin does a very good job following Jim Lee. He had big shoes to fill and is certainly filling them. Although the issue was more focused on character interactions, Benjamin found a way to make his art stand out. For example, Benjamin added to the story’s purpose of introducing characters, by drawing clear close-ups during personal moments.

Lastly, I just wanted to bring up the cover of the comic. It is obviously a selling point since The Batman Who Laughs was barely in this issue. I am sure they will use more of him later on this story but as of now his only purpose is telling Infinite Woman what to do and even she feels that his instructions are vague which is how I feel about his inclusion in this story.

The Immortal Men #3 serves as a much-needed break from the action as it focuses on characters. However, I still don’t feel any connection or care for the main protagonist, but regardless it was still beneficial to learn about The Immortal Men. I am just not sure if it is too late for me to feel connected to these characters since the story is starting to feel slightly bland.

Score: 3/5

The Immortal Men #3
DC Comics