Born of Blood #3 is a comic written by Dolan with Joe Corallo and illustrated by Carlos Beccaria with colors by Sebastian Gonzalez. Chickens come home to roost as actions taken by the former king affect Giaris and Leonidas in the present. This is an extremely violent and blood-filled tale with combat on over half the pages. Up until now our sole lead was Giaris, the princess of Sparta who has grown and trained to become a master fighter and tactician. But this time around we have Leonidas, a general who is now the current ruler of Sparta and is currently on uneasy terms with Giaris. Also making an appearance here is the advisor Aurelia. The plot starts with a battle and has fights throughout with some moments set aside for reflection and flashbacks. In spite of all the violence this is story-driven action as the reasons behind the battles make sense. The action scenes are dripping with blood with a few gory moments. Things are intense almost the entire time and the calm moments are rife with intrigue. The dialogue has a sense of toughness to it as most of the characters we’ll see are hardened. Absolutely no wordy pages here. In a series known for violence this issue does not disappoint but we also get some interesting plot developments and surprises.
While we know what black-and-white comics are I’d say this one is a brown-and-red. It seems that the color scheme was taken from old Greek art that you might find on amphorae. This gives it an ancient vibe that other comics taking place in this era don’t have. There are a few scenic shots here and they look pretty good. Some of the locations visited are the battlefield, a few tents, and some caverns. Backgrounds usually persist from panel-to-panel which adds something to each scene. The expression level here is high with the characters showing multiple looks well though most of them are angry. The faces are full of so much detail with stress lines and wrinkles and even the way blood sits on the skin. We’ll see a number of looks here from sly looks to grimaces to irritation. It seems a note was taken from 300 as nearly everyone you’ll see is ripped. Action here is bloody from the start and the scenes flow well. Gore is relatively light but you will see some parts not end up where they belong. Most of the violence comes at the end of a bladed weapon but there is some physical stuff here as well. The clothing style here seems to be “just enough” with a few of the ladies wearing a bit more.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like stories with an ancient theme starring a woman and featuring lots of bloody violence than this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Death, blood, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“You know you can’t hide these things from me.”
Physical Link: https://mercpublishing.com/products/born-of-blood-3-cover-b-ryan-kincaid?_pos=4&_sid=1aa83dbb3&_ss=r
Digital Link: https://mercpublishing.com/collections/digital-downloads/products/born-of-blood-3-pdf-download
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mercmagazine/born-of-blood-3-special-edition/description
Unboxing Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7egw00uz5tI
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
*
*
*
*
*
Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 20
Violent Pages: 11, for 55% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“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 – 4
“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 – 4
“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 – 1
“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.”
