Comic Review: The Weatherman #3

The Weatherman #3

Image Comics

Writer: Jody LeHeup

Artist: Nathan Fox

This issue opens with an extremely graphic scene of a new character, Azim. It in these scenes that we finally get a look at the book’s antagonist. Although LeHeup never formally names him, we can assume it’s Jenner because of his connection to our three bounty hunters Kade, Oakley, and The Marshal. Azim has been forced by this unnamed torturer to virtually relive this “stressful” day, to put it lightly, many times. The whole thing reminded me of the “White Bear” episode of Black Mirror.

Jenner, who is featured on the cover, has no empathy, no ethics, and his assistant dresses like Princess Leia after she was enslaved by Jabba the Hutt. It’s evident by his actions in this issue that he will use whatever force necessary to get what he wants, making him easy to hate.

Meanwhile, Nate and Agent Cross are on a mission to track down Nate’s memory. They need to stop Jenner from whatever he’s planning next. What that is, we don’t know yet, but it’s something extreme. We know what he’s capable of, though. During their danger-filled adventures, Nate is super positive and wears a smile on his face despite constantly being in imminent danger. As a character, I love him, but if I met him in real life, I think I’d find him highly annoying just like the rest of the characters in The Weatherman.

All of the panels have a simple shape until we get to the heavy action. Here they start to tilt slightly and lean into one another, which flows nicely for this portion of the book. Although I really love the angles Fox takes here, I’m not in love with the art of this book as a whole. The lines aren’t clean at all, which makes it hard to comprehend what’s happening in some of the more action-packed pages. The colors could also pop more. Looking at the covers, I thought I would love the art. If Fox could incorporate more of those bold lines and color combinations into the panels, I’d be psyched. Overall, it’s not terrible, but it could be much better.

LeHeup explores the theme of identity a little more in this issue through a new drug called Nemo. Nemo let’s the user experience memories as if they were happening all over again, which seems like it would be the drug of choice for a world who just experienced a genocide. I hope LeHeup incorporates this drug into the story more because it’s really intriguing. Obviously, much of the plot of The Weatherman relies on memories, which begs the question of what constitutes our identities? Is it our memories or could it be something else?

LeHeup’s storytelling abilities are what’s keeping me interested in this book. She tells a complex story using both action and dialogue. The Weatherman has a lot of characters in play with a lot of connections, which sometimes makes the story a little hard to follow. All in all, it’s still a good story, and I hope she can keep the hits coming, especially after that cliffhanger.