The United States of Murder, Inc. #3 Review

Poor Valentine Gallo. Becoming a Made Guy was supposed to change his world for the better, yet so far all its gotten him is punched, pierced and probed. It’s a rough start to a rough life, and with Brian Michael Bendis calling the shots, things can only get worse from here.

Whereas the first two issues were more on the wordy side, focused on setting up the world of the Family and its inhabitants, issue #3 is a decidedly quieter affair, featuring a number of bubble free, art driven pages. That’s not to say it’s boring – Bendis again delivers a fun mix of high octane action and what-if world building, replete with numerous close calls and societal status changes. While most of it works well (any scene featuring Jagger Rose is pretty much the best), other scenes, such as the virtual roundtable between the Family heads, fall just short. Said sequence is fine in its own right, but the script-style narration isn't all that reader friendly as it forces one to go back and forth in order to figure out who is speaking to whom.

Continue reading…