The Vigilant: The Dimensional Protectorate #3 is a comic written by David McCluskey and Eric Alan Nelson with art by Benjamin Morse. The Vigilant battle foes on multiple fronts while searching for answers. This is a supernatural superhero comic with a large cast, a bit of drama, and a good deal of violence. The superhero group The Vigilant is currently split up into two groups with Ms. Sweeney/Mother, Candace/Hellfire Witch, and Dominique/Domino, they are in the hospital visiting Domino’s uncle, Professor Isaac Kaplan. Meanwhile Wardance, Anathema, Curt, and Benjamin head to Kaplan’s home to investigate what happened there. The story picks up where the last one left off with the group at the hospital confronting a hooded man with the ability to control people and the second team battling aggressive nuns. The violence here is hard-hitting with not much blood but nothing gory. The pacing is steady and the tone is part superhero movie, part supernatural thriller. There are many intense moments due to violence and unknown danger. The dialogue has a lot of back-and-forth and is mostly modern with some proper English from certain characters. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting and mysterious issue that uses violence to progress the story.
The art here is smoothly detailed with strong outlines, shading, and clarity/sharpness. The color range is decently wide with most of them being a variation of red, blue, or yellow. Though we do see some trees in the background there isn’t much natural scenery. The main locations are a hospital and the front yard of Professor Kaplan’s home. The hospital has that clean, sterilized look and the house looks like your average abode. The backgrounds sometimes show the actual surroundings and other times it’ll be a gradient color with optional action lines. The expression level here is around average with most characters emoting. The main emotion is anger with some sinister vibes with some fear, sadness, and confusion. The faces have a good amount of detail though they might seem stiff on occasion. The supernatural abilities tend to shine bright and blue. The violence has hard hits and burning, electric, and tentacle-like attacks. There is some blood but no gore. The action scenes can be lengthy and feature a high amount of panels.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural superhero stories starring a large cast of mainly women with a significant amount of violence and a bit of drama then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, nudity.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“I must decline your offer, though it is appreciated.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maelstromwardance/the-vigilant-the-dimensional-protectorate-3/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
*
*
*
*
*
Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24
Violent Pages: 13, for 0% 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 – 2
“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 – 1
“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.”
