‘Commanders in Crisis #3 & #4’ (review)

Written by Steve Orlando
Art by Davide Tinto
Published by Image Comics

OK, you got me.

Commanders in Crisis began with a murder mystery, but that mystery didn’t engage me much. The first couple of issues had to perform so much heavy lifting about the world we’re operating in, about the Crisis Command team, about their powers and secret identities, that it was a bit blurry for me.

But the story is really gaining steam in issue #4, which builds beautifully from the prior issue. Steve Orlando and Davide Tinto’s story now is digging further into the characters and their own motivations, the ways they see things. And by doing so, the story gives way to greater mysteries and reveals.

Tinto’s art – an anime-tinged cartoonishness that looks a lot like Afro-Samurai, is still not my cup of tea for comics. But that’s just an old man talking, I think. Tinto shows solid composition and dynamic panel work, which comes in handy when this issue has a lot of talking and monologues.

If there’s any weakness in this storytelling, it’s that the world building from the first couple of issues didn’t do enough to make me remember the “mind muggers,” or care enough about that wacky secret-society symbol apparently connected to the killers of our John Doe Empathy.

But our empathy man was brought back to life and we learn more about who he is, and the Crisis Command leader’s connection to him, in the previous issue. The trail of bread crumbs takes us to some juicier places in this new issue.

For example, without spoilers, our big enemy reveals themselves, and in doing so opens up a new raft of questions that fractures our team of heroes with a Thunderbolts-ian twist on a multiversal scale. A development that makes the death of empathy on this world, well, small potatoes.

Commanders in Crisis has deepened considerably now, and I believe this one will persuade you to stick with this one for the remaining eight issues.