REVIEWS-Three Strikes 1

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RECOMMENDED (* stars) THREE STRIKES #1 (of 5), an ONI COMICS mini-series CREDITS: Written by Nunzio DePhillipis/Christina Weir. Art by Brian Hurtt. SYNOPSIS: Ingredients: One dumb kid nailed for being stupid, on bail bondsman with a crappy family life. Mix them together and you get the stuff crime novels are made of. RELEASED:** 4/23/03 COVER PRICE (USA): $2.99 YOUR ALTERNATE REALITY PRICE: $2.54	"...art by Hurtt is reality based. His panels are dense and his characters are realistic"

Review by Lawrence Evans DePhillipis and Weir teamed up on Skinwalker, which Oni chose to be part of Free Comic Book Day 2; they are also the team of the Tsunami New Mutants book coming out later this month. Hurtt worked on Skinwalker as well as two Queen & Country arcs and may do another if Greg Rucka asks him (by the way Rucka gets busted in this book). The smart folks at Oni put them together again for this mini because they knew that people would love them for it. The stupid kid that this series will revolve around is Rey Quintana. He's the first guy we see while on the way to jail for doing something dumb. He forgot his girlfriend's birthday and for some reason he thinks shoplifting some earrings will help him along. He gets caught and since this is his third offense he's going to do some serious time. His co-star is ex-cop, current skip tracer Noah Conway. He's divorced (naturally) with a sixteen-year-old daughter who may or may not hate his guts. We see him in action when he nails Rucka but through dialogue we get the feeling that he's not always delicate when tracking people down. Technically, he's a bounty hunter so he doesn't have to follow any rules while cornering his prey. The two characters don't cross paths here because it's not necessary. The point is to establish them in their natural environments and ground them in a reality we can accept. Quintana isn't a bad kid but he does things he knows are wrong. Conway wants to be a good dad but he is who he is. What will complicate things even further is the story point that will have all this happen the same week Conway is supposed to spend with his daughter since his ex is going out of town. It's the kind of thing that will either make the two closer or drive them further apart. This is one hell of a story. The art by Hurtt is reality based. His panels are dense and his characters are realistic. My only problem is that this is in black and white. Teamed with a good colorist this art would look even better. I didn't realize Skinwalkers was so good until I reviewed it as part of Free Comic Book Day 2 then had to snag a copy of the trade. I picked this out of necessity (independent comics come out the day they're released, while the Marvel and DC titles I review come out the week before to give dealers a chance to reorder before next week's books are packed into boxes) without planning to get it; now I have to have it as part of my collection.

THREE STRIKES © 2003 ONI PRESS. All Rights Reserved.
Review © 2003 Alternate Reality, Inc.