“Burning Fields” #3 offers a handful of satisfying reveals. I’ve complained about the first two issues dropping us into the middle of conversations and dropping too many names and referencing too many events making it difficult to follow. Patience has rewarded and now I feel like I’ve got a grasp on the whos and whats of this book and I gotta say, I’m 100% invested.
WRITTEN BY: Michael Moreci, Tim Daniel
ART BY: Colin Lorimer
PUBLISHER: BOOM!
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: March 18, 2015
“Burning Fields” is a unique blend of noir, political thriller, and horror. In a way it feels like ideas got pulled out of a hat, but the execution is so on point that it is easy to get swept away and not get hung up on the oddness of it all. This issue stands out to me, as I said, for being the most accessible in the series. These killings are beginning to have a domino effect Kirkuk, Verge, and our protagonists and a new, uneasy alliance is formed between Dana, Aban, and Aban’s former cult associate Ghada. Just as some real progress is about to be made on the case, conflict erupts between Decker’s people and the locals. Emotions are running high on both sides since the murders started happening, and the tension surrounding the oil field is on the verge of erupting.
It is impressive to see how all of these factions and forces with their own motivations are coming together. For a serial killer book, “Burning Fields” is pretty grounded. There have been some not so subtle hints that things are going to take a turn for the supernatural (and I’m not even talking about that freaky-ass cover) and even though at this point I’d prefer it didn’t go that way, I trust these guys to do it in such a way that the book doesn’t lose focus or direction. I feel like my investment in the series has been earned.
It is difficult to find anything to critique here, but I will say that Dana’s Decker speech got a little melodramatic for my taste. In particular the page where we have a close up of her face on the left side of the page and her memories on the right. It was effective, but felt too derivative to me and it followed a high energy scene, making it seems like the issue was slamming on the breaks.
I’ve been praising “Burning Fields” all along and I think #3 is the strongest issue yet. There are a lot of serial killer books ongoing right now, but please don’t overlook this one. It offers something really unique that I think people should see.
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Eric Switzer is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.