Review - Double Jumpers #3

Crossing over worlds rarely works out as expected. More often than not, people end up doing things that's not characteristic of them and scenarios play out differently than normal. Double Jumpers #3 from Action Lab Comics is no exception.

The issue is written by Dave Dwonch and illustrated by Bill Blankenship.

There's a lot going on in the third issue. The developers are still stuck in the game, trying to get out and being forced to follow along with the storyline they themselves drafted. They know everything that's coming, but there's very little they can do to prevent it from happening.

Meanwhile, the in-game characters are learning what life is like in the real world. The group is spending lots of money and discovering things such as bars, credit cards and strip clubs. The two storylines converge in a manner of speaking on Danielle at the end.

Dwonch's story in Double Jumpers is crude and crass, making sure to put the characters in very adult situations. There almost seems to be a surfeit of crassness in the issue, where every situation is vulgar for the sake of being vulgar. The story prides itself on being as raunchy as possible, with every character letting loose in their new bodies. It wouldn't be so off-putting if it just wasn't so confusing.

The characters switching places with the game developers is easy enough, but mixing up the gender roles makes it a chore to follow who's who. For example, a female developer becomes a male character, only she (he?) still acts like a woman in the game (and vice versa). While you can expect this to naturally lead to fairly entertaining situations, you just lose track of which character is which gender and who is who.

Blankenship's art is very fantastical. He does a great job presenting magical and mystical creatures from the game, giving the developers a plethora of obstacles to deal with. For some reason, a lot of the character faces look off though, so much so that panel close-ups on character faces are a little jarring. Overall though, the art definitely plays into the idea of a video game very well. It's all very familiar to fans of games like World of Warcraft.

The concept behind the series is interesting, but the execution is a little sloppy. It's not necessarily that it's written or illustrated poorly, but it's just really, really confusing to follow. The idea of switching between reality and video game reality has appeal to it and is brought to life with solid art. Hopefully things even out a bit by the end and everyone knows what's what.

Double Jumpers #3 is available for pre-order (Diamond Code AUG120751) with an October release in comic book shops and various digital distribution outlets. Check out the interiors below.





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