Arachna 3: Primal Fear is a comic written by Martti Kauppinen with art by Carlos Granda and colors by Javi Laparra. In the midst of battling with herself, Arachna must also deal with a doppelganger. This is a superheroine comic that has a significant amount of drama and violence with two women at the helm. The leading lady is a woman with two personalities named Jennie and Arachna. Jennie is a relatively calm and in college at the Pratt Institute where she is majoring in fashion. Arachna loves action, violence, and speaks with much less of a filter than Jennie. They have spider-based powers which grant them super-strength, agility, and the ability to shoot webs from her finger tips. Kumo makes her return as an antagonist and she is after Jennie/Arachna for evil purposes. The story begins Jennie receiving a nightmare courtesy of Arachna before waking up waxing about what her life has become. We then follow Jennie’s friend Tamara out with their boyfriend Sami on a drive around town. Their pleasant day is interrupted as ratmen emerge from the sewers. The violence here has brutal attacks with plenty of blood and gruesome moments leading to gore. The pacing here is overall steady with some sequences being faster and others being slower. The tone here is like that of a superheroine movie with themes of self-doubt and struggle. There are many intense moments with some being emotional and others being violent. The dialogue has a good amount of back-and-forth with some light monologuing and mid-fight quips. There are some thick text bubbles and at least a couple word-heavy pages. This is a violent and dramatic third issue that builds on what has happened in the past to give us something riveting and thrilling.

            The art here is very detailed and reminiscent of 80’s/90’s comics with some decent shading. The color range is fairly wide with a lot of dark colors and red. This takes place deep in the heart of New York City so the scenery is mainly urban from tall buildings and advertisements to a cluttered skyline. The location changes constantly from apartments to the streets even to the rooftops. There are also some more unique areas visited both out in the open and secluded. The backgrounds are more often a gradient color than anything else but there is usually so much happening in the foreground that you won’t notice. The expression level here is very high and looks tend to change on a panel-by-panel basis. The emotions here are anger with some rage, sadness, a lot of pain, and sprinklings of happiness with joy. The faces have a high amount of detail and show the different expressions with strength and clarity. There is some faces sameness here amongst the ladies and though it is noticeable it won’t confuse you. The violence here is mainly physical with the occasional sharp object and projection-based weapon. There are some brutal attacks that lead bloody and gruesome moments with one outright gory moment. The action scenes can be lengthy with an overall smooth flow and a decent to good amount of panels. Arachna wears a revealing outfit with a large window from her breasts to her navel. All the women here have large breasts and there is a bit of bondage here.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superheroine stories starring a majority cast of women with a large amount of brutal violence and drama as well as some sapphic and light BDSM moments then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Do I look like I need it? Don’t answer that.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arachnacomic/arachna-3-primal-fear/description

Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/arachna-3-primal-fear/x/26236710#/

Unboxing Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBqP3yfCT0Q

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 56

Violent Pages: 27, for 48% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 3, for 5% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 5

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5 for one moment, 3 overall

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”