You may remember a movie that came out over the summer entitled 2 Guns. It starred Denzel Washington and Mark Walberg. It was the story of two “guns” (gunmen) who get involved in a wild adventure involving drug lords, government operatives, girlfriends, and other persons who could get our two heroes in a whole lot of hot water. The movie did modest business and received decent reviews. Not too bad for a movie based on a comic that doesn’t have one of the “big two” comic names behind it. Big applause goes to Boom Studios for getting 2 Guns green lit and made. During the release of the movie in August, Boom Studios announced that a sequel titled appropriately enough, 3 Guns would begin in August and run for limited time. The story has since pushed on through and we are now at Issue #4. And not surprisingly, 3 Guns is a whole lot like 2 Guns. It has action. It has betrayal. It has flip-flopping. It has trash talking. And, it has lots of bravado. Lots and lots and lots (Did I say lots?) of bravado. Our two heroes(?) may be criminals and things may be falling completely apart all around them, but they are cool. And there is nothing, nothing that will break them from their coolness.
Nothing changes here on 3 Guns, except maybe an extra gun in the form of a female. There is a blackmailed induced huge arms deal that doesn’t quite go as planned and now money is missing, guns are missing, and everyone, good and bad want to know what happened and wants to make person or persons responsible pay. Our two main characters encounter each other during the “deal” and things run from there. This run takes place very shortly after the 2 Guns arc.
In spite of all of the trouble, the confusion, and the perplexity of the situation at hand, our heroes are cool as cucumbers. Gun in your face? No problem. Threats of immense torture and death? It’s cool. Being hung in open water on a fishing line till you talk? Not great fun, but hey, it’s a living. It’s like these guys are just too cool for what all is going down around them. There seems to be no real danger because these guys don’t really show it. They are just being too cool. Nothing fazes them. In issue four alone, the double crosses are rampant, but the guys always, always are cool. No loss of composure, no fear, no nothing… just cool.
Art wise, the drawing looks good enough but like our heroes, it is just cool. The bodies are buff on the men and women and nobody sweats. Even with all the danger around and millions of dollars at stake, nobody sweats. I found this to feel rushed. The action is drawn out well enough, but sometimes you just want to know that these gentlemen (and lady) struggle just a little.
I do give credit to Steven Grant for keeping the pace of the story flowing. A whole lot of stuff happens in this issue and Grant does a good job in keeping the pace easy to follow even though it is loaded with characters on all sides, flip-flopping of allegiances, and more threats of bodily harm being thrown around than a Ritchie Incognito voice mail.
Still, if you are not a fan of a fully testosterone charged “buddy story” action comic, then 3 Guns just might not be your thing. But, if you dig on this type of manly action and are tired of the spandex and boots of the many superhero offerings out there, then 3 Guns might be right up your alley. There is no denying that Boom Studios is having a good year here. We will see if it keeps on rolling.
Score: 3/5
Writer/Creator: Steven Grant Artist: Emilio Laiso Publisher: Boom Studios Price: $3.99 Release Date: 11/13/13