PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: FRACTURED STATES #3, from Dynamite Comics on June 1, 2022, reveals the cataclysmic disasters that unraveled the United States and led to a post-apocalyptic future where chaos reigns.
The Details
- Written By: Ron Marz, Andy Lanning
- Art By: Emilio Utrera
- Colors By: Arthur Hesli
- Letters By: Tom Napolitano
- Cover Art By: Michael Rooth (cover A)
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: June 1, 2022
Was It Good?
PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: FRACTURED STATES #3 takes a slight breather from the action of the previous two issues to address one of the biggest questions of the series, “What the Hell happened to America?” Marz and Lanning pile on one disaster after another to retell the story of a collapse that happens very slowly, and then all at once. Does it make for compelling storytelling or an unimaginative slog? It’s compelling and highly creative.
The highlight of the issue is Marz and Lanning’s pacing. The issue throws a lot of names and events at you very quickly, but the pace never gets bogged down in the minutiae, and you can keep up with what’s happening. A fair bit of the pacing credit goes to the art team for putting captions and inset panels in just the right spots to keep decades worth of history in just a few pages.
To be fair, it’s not perfect. If you’re not familiar with the Project: Superpowers collection of heroes and villains, you may get a little lost in a few spots. There are a few panels where the captions don’t quite line up with the character they reference, so you’ll struggle to figure out who’s who. Longtime fans will enjoy the Easter Egg references, especially when a hero turns bad or a villain attains a lifelong goal of dominance, but those references don’t hit as hard if you’re new to this lineup.
The excellent art by Utrera, Hesli, and Napolitano is a close second to the excellent pacing in this issue. The character, vehicle, and set designs are imaginative, the action is explosive (literally), and the panel layouts and composition do the Lord’s work keeping up with a firehose of information.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Read our PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: FRACTURED STATES #2 review first to find out how “John Doe” wound up in a speedboat with Bobbi.
We begin with “John Doe” and Bobbi speeding along in a swamp boat headed for Black Terror HQ. With time to spare, Bobbi goes into the events that led to this disastrous future. There are too many to list here, so just know any disaster you can think of happened – from fire tornadoes to giant tsunamis to superheated geysers to massive earthquakes.
The Project heroes tried to use their combined powers to stop the catastrophes, but magic- and weather-manipulating villains not only stopped the heroes, but they also turned their powers against the heroes to make things worse. Ultimately, many heroes lost their lives, and the blowback killed millions. Eventually, disasters and plagues pushed different sections of the country to secede into smaller fiefdoms, lorded over by the most powerful hero or villain to take charge in that area.
Amid the chaos, Bobbi explains how she survived as a refugee in a camp attacked by robot soldiers. Black Terror was the first to arrive, and although she was separated from her family forever, she joined Black Terror’s band of fighters to help those who couldn’t help themselves.
We conclude the issue with a dangerous crossing into the Natural Sector, a summons, a kidnapping, and the return of a familiar face.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: FRACTURED STATES #3 is a fun and information-packed read that fills in most of the blanks concerning the fate of America after “John Doe” went missing. The catastrophes are creative and feel big, the rise and fall of characters establish an eclectic new status quo, and the challenge ahead seems overwhelming, as it should. That said, there are volumes of information about what happened, and keeping it straight can be overwhelming.
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