Review: THE ANSWER! #3

THE ANSWER! #3
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Dennis Hopeless and Mike Norton
SCRIPT: Dennis Hopeless
ART/COVER: Mike Norton
COLORS: Mark Englert
LETTERS: Crank!
PIN-UP: Francesco Francavilla with Dominic Marco
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (March 2013)

Part 3 of 4

We get closer to the Answer in the latest issue of The Answer!

Created by writer Dennis Hopeless (Avengers Arena) and artist Mike Norton (Battlepug), The Answer! is a four-issue comic book miniseries. The series follows Devin McKenzie, a research librarian, and The Answer!, an odd, masked crime fighter with a giant exclamation point on his face mask, both of whom are embroiled in a conspiracy surrounding a mysterious motivational speaker.

As The Answer! #3 opens, Devin McKenzie is living out her dream at the Brain Trust. She’s eating her favorite foods, and all she has to do all day is think big thoughts. High on “brain boost,” she doesn’t have a care in the world, but fellow thinker, Kara, is about to rock Devin’s comfortable world. And what is the Anaximander Codex?

Meanwhile, the Answer is stuck in a nuthouse nightmare. Strapped do a gurney and in a hospital gown, the strange superhero finds himself in a predicament. When he tries to escape, the hero ends up with his ass hanging out and a chemical in his brain that disconnects his central nervous system. Devin and the Answer will have to wake up and work together if they are going to unravel the mysteries of the Brain Trust.

After the novelty of the first issue of The Answer! wore off for me with the second issue, The Answer! #3 makes me say that the thrill is not gone. Mystery, eccentric characters, by-the-skin-of-their-teeth escapes, and fisticuffs – all with a humorous bent – are what this series does well. There are more revelations, and less of the coy act the second issue put on. The killer ending here prepares the way for what will likely be a good end. Read this series.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux