HyperGeist #3 is a comic written by Scott Wilke with art by Cari Salviejo and colors by AZ Volt. June is desperate for help as she attempts to prevent herself from being reset. This is a futuristic science fiction comic with strong cyberpunk elements, robot violence, and thrilling drama. The leading lady here is June, she is an android made for sexual purposes who wants to become something more and obtain true free will. In her quest for this she has been searching for the HyperGeist Drive. Ren Nakamoto is a police officer in the Android Affairs Unit who is in love with June and has been helping her when he can. This story picks up where the last one left off with June and Ren leaving the scene of a battle with murderbots. As they talk in the speeding car they learn that June is in danger of being reset by her boss/owner Mac as he’s seen her recent exploits on the news. This information forces this duo to make alternative plans. This takes place in a high-tech cyberpunk city called New Tokyo with neon lights and bright screens everywhere. The action here is a bit bloody and robotically gruesome with gore. The pacing here is steady with speed picking up when things get violent. There is a stressful, high danger tone here somewhat like the latter third of Blade Runner(either movie). The intensity is high pretty much the entire time as there are chase sequences and life-threatening violence. The dialogue is all conversational with good back-and-forth along with some tech talk. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a thrilling high stakes issue that is stressful throughout as June and Ren are being hunted and assailed on multiple fronts.

            The art here is drawn in a soft and somewhat smoothly detailed modern style with well-done lighting and shading. The color range is pretty with the different pages and panels having their own palette from purple-pink to red-blue and even green. This takes place in vehicles and in buildings so there isn’t any natural scenery. The main location for this story is the nightclub called The Phoenix which seems to be much more about sex than dancing. The layout is like that of your average hotspot. The backgrounds will show the actual surrounding for the most part but sometimes it’ll be a patterned or gradient color. The expression level here is above-average as June reacts what goes on but Ren likes to maintain a hard look. Emotions on display here include fear, anger, shock, confusion, and happiness. The faces have an average to high amount of detail with all the different expressions usually being clear. Violence here is usually delivered physically with optional enhancements and the occasional firearm. There is a bit of human blood here but there is more gruesomeness and gore of the robotic kind. The lone action scene is sort of lengthy with a smooth flow and it is interspersed with less violent moments in a back-and-forth sort of way. The women here are dressed seductively in revealing clothes and they are occasionally nude.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like futuristic science fiction cyberpunk stories that star an android woman and a cybernetically enhanced cop and that feature strong violence and high stakes drama then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, robotic gore, nudity, sexual situations.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Kill code? You mean hard reset?!”

 

Physical Link: https://badbugmidnight.com/products/hypergeist-3-cover-a-cari-salviejo-variant-1?variant=46851993338077

Digital Link: https://badbugmidnight.com/products/hypergeist-3-digital?variant=46851938484445

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mikeatbadbug/hypergeist-3-a-cyberpunk-thriller/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 6, for 25% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 3, for 13% 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, it is robotic though

“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 – 4

“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.”