“Edward Scissorhands” #3 is a classic 3rd issue lull. Issue #1 was a great setup, issue #2 was important plot development, and those are both so exciting that in a monthly comic, a third issue can rarely measure up.
WRITTEN BY: Kate Leth
ART BY: Drew Rausch, Declan Shelvey, Jordie Bellaire
PUBLISHER: IDW Publishing
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: January 7, 2015
Reviewed By Katy Rex
The second issue ended on a very exciting and suspenseful moment, left us waiting with baited breath for the next installment. The opening of this issue is good, and it’s realistic, but with a month’s worth of anticipation, it just didn’t pack the punch I was expecting. When Megs showed up at the mansion, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was hoping for a whole issue of her getting to know Edward. However, despite the very short amount of interaction between Megs & Edward, the letters by Travis Lanham were really given a chance to shine, the differences between Megs’ and Edward’s voices amplified by their proximity and juxtaposition.
This issue also helps to clarify Eli’s alignment. Whereas the character of Edward was always something of a Chaotic Good, Eli is Chaotic Neutral with the most optimistic of estimations. He’s going out in the world and figuring out how things work, what things are, but he lacks any sort of empathy or any motivation not to do harm. He’s not necessarily evil, since it’s unlikely that he intends any particular evil, but there’s no indication of any moral compass either.
Overall, this issue was unobjectionable, but it felt like filler. That doesn’t in any way detract from the strength of the first two, and it doesn’t make me any less excited for the fourth, I’m just minimally underwhelmed. This creative team is incredibly talented, and I expect great things from the future of this series.
Worth noting, also, is the way that the letters column has developed a life of its own. Every issue, more and more people have things to say about the ways that Edward Scissorhands touched their lives, made their adolescence endurable, made their goth phase happen, and more. This letters page(s) might have started out as nostalgia-driven, but it’s coming into its own with each issue, showing the big and important ways this franchise has affected and continues to affect its audience across generations.
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. She also writes scholarly articles for various academic journals. She really likes butt jokes, dinosaurs, and killing psychos and midgets in Borderlands 2. She has a great sense of humor if you’re not an asshole.