Shuddertown #3

Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Adam Geen

I think that Nick Spencer just might be the next Brian Michael Bendis.  He's definitely prolific, with Shuddertown being his third mini-series this year and another solicited, and he has shown himself to be versatile too, his work running the gamut from a science fiction thriller (which I haven't read yet) to a teen and post-teen drama, to this gritty police procedural with a few twists.

I've been enjoying Shuddertown, although I found this issue to be a lot more disjointed than the previous two.  There's a sequence taking up the first third of the book that I didn't really understand, although I found the dialogue riveting.  This issue introduces some new characters without really introducing them; they just appear and interact with the established characters or the storyline.  Nothing is really explained, which I usually like in a comic, but I'm a touch lost here.

Geen's art could be the culprit in some ways - not all of that opening sequence is clear, and that's largely because of Geen's heavily photo-referenced artwork.  It's odd that I don't remember noticing much about the art before, but now I want to go back and double-check to see if something in this issue is different.

Regardless, this is an interesting title and I intend to stick with it to the end.  And watch: when Spencer's the next big name at one of the Big Two, other people are going to be claiming they've been fans since this came out.