Extraordinary #3

Extraordinary #3

Titan Comics 2021

Written by V.E. Schwab

Illustrated by Enid Balam

Coloured by Jordi Escuin

Lettered by Rob Steen

Charlotte Tills survived a bus crash and became EO – ExtraOrdinary – gaining the ability to see other people’s deaths in reflective surfaces.

This issue is where things start to get kicked into high gear. Charlotte was saved by these two guys last issue when she was going to march herself right into a trap. I love how quickly she’s gone from a naive child to a more hardened girl ready to take the action to those who are coming after her. After all, it doesn’t take much when you have her power to see how folks are going to die and how those responsible need to be held accountable for what would appear to be the death of her family. This issue does a magnificent job in showing the change to Charlotte and how she’s not one to sit idly by while others fight a battle that she’s supposed to be a part whether through circumstance or fate. There really is some great writing going on here and I have to admit it progresses a lot faster than I had anticipated it doing and I’m completely and utterly impressed.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continues to flesh out their personalities extremely well. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story, the characters and where things are going next it’s actually so very exciting.

I really like and appreciate the way that this is being structured as well as how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. How we see the new avenues opening up and the established ones being further explored all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the storytelling. I’m really digging the way that this story is being explored on so many different facets or fronts. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

I’m really loving the interiors here. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create this level of detail work we see throughout the issue is well extraordinary. Backgrounds are a double edged sword because they are being utilised and I love that but I’d like to see them filled more which is my personal preference. This is because they set the stage and work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story and I’d also like them to enhance and expand the story as well. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The way we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great eye for colour and how it works.

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This is the second comic series or franchise from Schwab that I’m reading and they couldn’t be any more different from one another and yet they are both so incredibly well written and interesting to read. She’s a very talented writer and I have to say I’m looking forward to reading what she writes time and time again. With some excellent writing and fantastic characterisation wrapped up in these utterly delightful interiors you’ll welcome the opportunity to explore this world.