2 out of 5

It feels pretty cheap rating a free ashcan that came with an order of some other comics, but, hey, I’m doing the Lord’s work of hanging out on the internet and whining.

But for realsy, I like this imprint – 215 Ink / Invader Comics – as they have an upstart vibe I appreciate and seem to churn out always interesting books, even if I don’t necessarily like the end products. However, this ashcan is unfortunately not the best ad for then-upcoming series Three Protectors. The art style, which is a unique, chunky, chibi Brian Churilla thing, isn’t showcased nearly at all, as the introductory pages are mostly text on black, with minimal illustrations.

That also goes to getting us interested in the story, which has a narrator telling us about the evolution of a Mortal Kombat-style tournament into a world combat tournament, but with three contenders – mayhaps you get the title now – which, as per my statement above, is a cool idea, but the grandstanding nature of the text here reads like the back of a video game box at this point (which I’d say is purposeful, as I know Keith Foster can write, so let’s suppose that’s the aimed for tone), and the comic sans-style font on the last few pages, meant to be a call out to planet Earth to participate, looks about as serious as comic sans can.

It all just feels like a slight mismatch, and not the best pages to capture for hooking an audience.