Snapshot #3

I desperately wanted to love this book. The very same team that brought us the seminal Green Arrow origin story? How could it not be amazing, right? However that is simply not the case. Unfortunately it seems more on the level of Daredevil Reborn. Serviceable at best.

I really enjoyed the first issue. I work at a comic book store, so of course I related to the main character. You know, except for the whole extreme situation bit.

The second issue started to lose me. It became less of a mystery, and more of an action book. I was excited for a mystery, but the characters didn't really solve anything at all. Literally they went to a place, and were told what had been going on.

Better sell the Mystery Machine, Fred. These two kids are really gunning to take over for you and the rest of the gang.

The third issue was just disappointing. At least it was to me. The book has turned into something along the lines of a blockbuster action movie. Which is great if that's what you're looking for, but it isn't exactly my cup of tea.

The main character, Jake Dobson, has become increasingly less believable as the book goes on. Like I said, I work at a comic store. Not a single person who works there, including myself, would ever attempt something as Hollywood badass as trying to take on a contract killer.

It's possible we're all lazy, or just simply not badass. I'd like to think that we all know our lot in life: we don't take out killers, we call the cops.

So, while the dialogue and pacing is pretty solid, the unbelievable characters and shift from a mystery plot to an action flick inspired one is pretty disappointing.

Jock's art is solid, as usual. However, I think he really suffers from not having a colorist on this book. There is a lot of dark tone and the black and white makes it a bit hard to figure out what's going on sometimes.

He does know how to make a nice looking page though. Jock's page layouts in Snapshot are fantastic. He never uses a splash page, which I'm fond of. In a four-issue story, there is simply no room in the page economy for a splash page without sacrificing some pacing.

Honestly, even the full page panels seem like a lot, but they really were necessary.

Jock's character design seemed to fade a bit in this issue, but most of the new characters seen in this issue are related, so looking the same is forgivable. Some of the weird faces and the inconsistencies were not though.

The art seems a bit rushed. I know Jock can do a better job than this. So either he's got to be rushed or maybe he's not just into Snapshot enough to give it his all.

No matter what the reason for it is, Snapshot just feels a bit disappointing to me. I'm already 3 issues in out of 4, so I will be reading the last one, but I'd recommend passing on this book.