3 out of 5

Same deal as before: Stills of the CG nick show with dialogue and paneling done to make it work as a comic.  I suppose I just have to deal with the notion that these books are going to jump from notable episode to notable episode without “previously” comments or asterisked explanations,  beyond a character intro page that does the “I’m so and so and here’s my witty joke and also a fact about me!” for all featured players; knowing that, fair enough, and volume 3 is at least self-contained in terms of references.

Also the same baby steps in terms of progress: adapter Justin Eisinger seems to be getting more and more comfortable with comic pacing, the first half of the book actually pretty well done, the humor and dialogue beats landing.  But, as before, the general lack of color in (or rather the dark hue of) the show has not been touched up at all for print, leading to the drabbest of the drab pages when stuff goes down at night, and the action still, also, does not translate at all.  Comic book camera work is just different; the still won’t cut it.

Also, this volume brought my positive attentions to letterer / designer Tom Long.  I can’t speak to the latter half of that title, but to the former, his sound effects and application of splashier fonts fell flat (and felt flat) in the previous volumes, but here it seems he’s found the right level of “pop” to balance the forever weird mash-up of flat comic book and 3D CG stills.  Probably all in my head, but noted here all the same.

Until next volume, where I say “just like before,” and then prattle on for hundreds of words…