Liberator Created & Written by Matt Miner
Pencils & Inks by Javier Sanchez Aranda
Colours by Joaquin Pereyra
Lettered & Edited by Vito Delsante
Cover by Ben Templesmith
Backup “Lil Liberator” by Sean Von Gorman
Published by Black Mask Studios
The third issue of Liberator by Miner & Aranda hit shelves on Wednesday, September 11th, 2013. Issue #3 opens with Damon and Jeanette surrounded by police officers on the Broughton University campus, liberated fuzzy bunnies in hand. Miner’s series has been excellent thus far in providing excellent hooks and jaw-dropping cliff-hangers that leave the reader craving that next issue, and unfortunately for this great series we’re now three quarters of the way to the conclusion. Javier Sanchez Aranda’s inks really shine in this issue due to some terrific panels in which Damon and Jeanette are dressed in black garb.
Caught red-handed with the liberated bunnies in tow, Damon and Jeanette manage to pull a fast one on some dull uniform police officers that make Officer George Green of Showcase’s Trailer Park Boys look like J. Edgar Hoover or Melvin Purvis incarnate. The activist aficionados take advantage of the two dumbstruck cops and Jeanette diffuses the situation by deceiving the officers into believing they’re a part of a sorority initiation. The boys in blue get a call and take off into the night, leaving Damon and Jeanette free to their own devices. Damon begins to show a different side of his activism in this issue, a side that may end up getting the better of him by the conclusion of the series with next month’s issue. Following the departure of the police officers, Damon angrily and foolishly tosses a rock through the window at Broughton University. Well deserved, most assuredly, though foolish on Damon’s part all the same. While our noble hero’s intentions may be good, he appears to take a bit of a turn for the worse in this issue with his brash behaviour that draws unwanted attention.
Jeanette’s infatuation (or love? We’ll have to see…) for Damon begins to wane with the changes in Damon’s behaviour at Broughton. After chastising Damon for his carelessness, Jeanette becomes even more annoyed with Damon’s disregard for communication security when he texts her about the events of the previous evening. She then has to remind our protagonist of the importance of a communications blackout which involves zero texts or emails or phone conversations about their destructive tendencies. Here, Miner hits out at an important issue that has plagued Western democracy in the past few months. Assuming you didn’t hear the news about NSA Prism leaked by former NSA employee Edward Snowden, the government is very engaged in collecting citizen’s communications for the purposes of national security, and activists like Damon and Jeanette are often criminalized by the state and labeled terrorists. If Damon doesn’t become more security conscious and begin making some better decisions, he may very well fall victim to arrest and jail time just for helping animals that are in desperate need of rescue. I’m hoping for a happy ending, but Damon is seriously slipping and the effects begin to manifest themselves in his working life at the café where he receives even more flack from Randy about showing up late to work.
Jeanette discovers a startling link between Trapper McMartin’s fur farm and the Fur Coalition of the USA, right before Damon engages in another arson. Unfortunately for Damon, the new information Jeanette’s uncovered isn’t of good nature. I’m not giving away any spoilers so you’ll have to buy the issue! Ask your local comic book shop to order your copy of Liberator #3 today!
This issue also features a 1 page back up story written, penciled and inked by Sean Von Gorman as well as some beautiful fan art from Megan Hutchison and Gianluca Constantini.
Write to Liberator at: liberatorletters@gmail.com
Follow Matt Miner on Twitter: @MattMinerXVX
Follow James M. Clark on Twitter: @JamesMClark87
Follow Inter-Comics on Twitter: @inter-comics
Posted on September 18th, 2013
Category: 50 SHADES OF BLOOD AND VISCERA, REVIEWS
Tags: Comic Reviews, James M. Clark, Javier Sanchez Aranda, Joaquin Pereyra, Liberator #2, Liberator #3 Review, Matt Miner