BOUNTIFUL GARDEN #3 – Review

In BOUNTIFUL GARDEN #3, available from Mad Cave Studios on November 17th, 2021, Anya and Jane grapple with the shock of Kamari’s fate. Meanwhile, the landing party looks for signs of life… and finds it.

The Details

• Written By: Ivy Noelle Weir
• Art By: Kelly Williams
• Colors By: Giorgio Spalletta
• Letters By: Justin Birch
• Cover Art By: Kelly Williams
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: November 17, 2021

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Was It Good?

This issue is, by far, the strongest issue of the series.

We’ve been hard on this series because it’s built on a shaky foundation. The premise, if you’re new to the series, surrounds a deep-space crew prematurely awakened from hibernation when their ship encounters an alien presence. The twist is that the crew are all adolescents. Now, there’s a logistical reason for using tweens/teens that may sound good on paper. In execution, however, it makes no sense to entrust a massive space mission to a group of individuals who lack the psychological, intellectual, and emotional maturity to handle the rigors of unknown space. When the basic premise is shaky, everything else feels off.

Surprisingly, this issue manages to overcome the shaky foundation by overwhelming it with raw suspense and fear-based tension. In effect, the story here builds on the horror elements so effectively, it’s easier to ignore the inherent distraction in the setup. If you just ignore the nagging bits, this is a very effective creature feature.

Part of the effectiveness of the fear comes from Williams’ art in this issue. Again, you have to put the notion of using tweens for the mission aside, but when you do, Williams wisely uses the characters’ eyes to express dread that turns to fear that turns to terror on almost every panel. If you flip through the pages rapidly, you can see a generally dark palette overshadowing every page, pin-pricked with the whites of the eyes from whichever character is in-panel. As the issue progresses, the whites get bigger and bigger until the issue is practically staring back at you in abject terror. Eyes carry so much emotion and the eyes of every character in this issue are drawn to express the maximum amount of fear.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

Check out where we left off with the crew in our BOUNTIFUL GARDEN #2 review.

We pick up with the landing crew spending a restless night in the planet’s ruins. When they wake up, they find Kurt, the group’s soldier/fighter, is missing. Marnie and Jonas wait for a few hours for Kurt to return. When Kurt fails to show up, they decide to search for him and continue exploring the ruins for possible supply materials.

Meanwhile, Jane is on the verge of shock while Anya tries to get a message to the landing party to tell them what happened to Kamari. The communication equipment fails to connect, and Jane runs off. When the ship’s environmental controls start to alarm, Anya goes off to investigate on her own. Unfortunately, creeping sounds and strange occurrences with the ship’s system lead her to believe she’s not as alone as she thought.

Meanwhile, Jonas and Marnie follow life readings on their sensors to a massive temple. However, the darkened temple shows no signs of life when they reach the inner chamber. We conclude the issue with Jonas and Marnie finding signs of those who came before them, and the source of the life signs makes its presence visible in large quantities.

Final Thoughts

BOUNTIFUL GARDEN #3 is an effectively chilling creature feature that amps up the paranoid tension on every page, making you feel like something is about to jump out of the dark at any second. While the fundamental premise is distractingly odd, this issue is the strongest and most emotionally effective of the series by a wide margin.

Score: 8/10

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