REVIEW: Nyx No.3

The chibli main cover for Nyx #3 is such a dangerous bait and switch that I almost didn’t get to the first page. I thought that everything I had read for the past few months had been betrayed for a watered-down direction. I was wrong.

Gage starts off number three going through the surprisingly rich history between Nyx and Vampi, prompting reader’s in the letterboxes to investigate past trades. As a reader who got into Dynamite books in the middle of Priests’ “Sacred Six”, these editor’s notes made me feel like I was missing out on important parts to this layered universe. To this day it’s a wonder how a sentence in a book not even the size of a word balloon can be as powerful as a Downtown billboard. Gage’s story for this issue is essentially an abridged version of Vampi and Nyx’s history that goes straight into a present encounter where reader’s learn that demons and vampire’s can become inebriated.

There’s battles with a cult and the tease for a book that would make an agnostic cream. The plot is basic, and plays like Spider-Man running into Daredevil or a Batman/Superman team-up where ideals clash, but their similarities are more common than their differences. What’s special past these tropes are the way that Gage is able to make these supernatural creatures so damn personable. Plus, where else can you see Vampirella get hit in the ass with a dart, like some hardcore version of pin the tail on a donkey in a biker bar?

Credit to Marc Borstel for drawing these pieces that show a different side of two of Dynamite’s flagship characters. But with all those gorgeous variant covers, Dynamite might want to reconsider their main, because comics are not sold by the art inside, primarily, but by the cover; and whoever selected Rose Beech for the main almost made me miss out on the beauty inside.

Score : 3/5

(W) Christos Gage (A) Marc Borstel (CA) Giuseppe Matteoni