Review - Tracker #3

Werewolves make great trackers. They have the heightened senses of animals with their sense of smell and vision. They have incredible strength and regenerative powers so there is no need to be very careful when pursuing their prey. Above all, when not feral, werewolves retain the ability to use their human intuition and powers of deduction to get them close enough to their prey to let the werewolf in them take over. This makes Alex O’Roark a very effective detective in Top Cow’s Tracker.

Written by Jonathan Lincoln and illustrated by Francis Tsai, Tracker #3 continues the hunt for the mysterious serial killer, and fellow werewolf, named Herod. This has been a fun series so far, shall we see if this issue continues to deliver?

The story progresses in this issue as O’Roark and his partners continue to track Herod. The issue opens with O’Roark’s mounting domestic issues on center stage until a rather gruesome discovery halts that. It appears that one of the suspects from the last issue has been cleared of all charges, forever. This leads the crew to track this individual back to the site of his unfortunately fate where another discovery is made.

After running some information through police databases it is discovered that Herod is much more then anyone had first assumed. This leads to a quick trip by O’Roark to Cyril Tucker of the Handel Corporation where we discovered that their offer to help may have come with some strings attached. Overall there wasn’t really much action as this third issue of five really set us up for some interesting battles to come in the fourth and fifth issues. We finally get a better picture at what happened to O’Roark to infect him to begin with, as Cyril Tucker conducts experiments on him.

The artwork overall is on par with the last two issues and continues to be a fun mix of cell shaded frames. There are a couple of points where the characters, particularly O’Roark’s partner, look a little funny, but these issues are few and far between. What few action scenes we do have are bloody and intense, and there is definitely a lot of emotion in the faces when it is needed to sell the dialogue. The look and feel of the comic has stayed very consistent overall. I’m eager to see how a more prolonged fight would be drawn, but I suppose I’m just a sucker for this particular style of art.

This issue was more about the detective work then the action, but between the flashbacks and rather horrible demise of one character, the action was still present and kicking. Herod is quickly developing into the King of the Werewolves and stopping him is going to be no small chore. I’m not sure if bullets are going to be enough so hopefully O’Roark can master his own inner wolf in order to hold out during the fight. The series continues to impress and I’m looking forward to the conclusion. I have to wonder whether Top Cow or the creators will consider making this a regular character as a werewolf cop riding the edge of control seems like a fun idea that I can’t recall having seen before.