It’s a decent issue with some great art sequences from Roberts–the explorers are fighting plant zombie wildlife after all–but it moves too fast. Dingess seems too concerned with keeping things moving and keeping to his narration structure to really relax and enjoy.

This issue, for example, once again has Sacajawea kicking butt. Only Dingess is too busy showing Lewis and Clark’s side of the event, which involves hallucinations, to let the reader enjoy the butt-kicking. The script sometimes makes Roberts’s art feel stunted. Who knows, maybe it’s the other way around and the art’s a stunted rendition of the script.

But I doubt it.

Still, the baseline quality of Manifest Destiny is undeniable. It remains to be seen whether Dingess is going to achieve something amazing for the series or be satisfied being above average.

The characters, who Dingess does give good attention, deserve more ambitious plotting.

CREDITS

Writer, Chris Dingess; artist, Matthew Roberts; colorist, Owen Gieni; letterer, Pat Brosseau; editor, Sean Mackiewicz; publisher, Image Comics.

It's a decent enough issue but the opening scene resolving the previous cliffhanger goes on way too long. There's also no science–though there's the hint of it–and the science stuff in Manifest Destiny is always cool.

Instead, Dingess very awkwardly paces the issue. There's no time spent getting the explorers through the forest full of monsters, lots of time spent on the boat preparing to go back out, then a seemingly pointless encounter with Sacajawea. That last scene almost just seems like a reminder she's in the comic, because Dingess hasn't used her yet. The men are still running things.

Though, after this issue's cliffhanger gets resolved, maybe not.

In many ways, the issue feels like the first half of a two-part one. The whole back to the boat then on an assault mission thing feels like a setup, not a plot point.

But it's still good.

CREDITS

Writer, Chris Dingess; artist, Matthew Roberts; colorist, Owen Gieni; letterer, Pat Brosseau; editor, Sean Mackiewicz; publisher, Image Comics.

Okay, Dinges knows he’s got his hooked readers by issue four and so he can punish with really good hard cliffhangers. Really frustrating good ones. Case in point, his cliffhanger here is only so good because of the way he layers in expectations about it in the journal entries of Lewis.

Maybe the cliffhanger is payback for Dinges building up the idea of a big monster fight only to avoid that sequence thanks to the arrival of Sacajawea. She remains a mystery this issue–though I’m assuming she’ll take down one or two of the scumbags eying her–but her wheeler dealer husband gets a lot of time. The comedy relief element is very welcome. Without some kind of comedy, half of Destiny is just a zombie story. One with a great setting, but still just zombies.

As much as the cliffhanger’s suddenness perturbs me, Dinges does pull it off.

CREDITS

Writer, Chris Dingess; artist, Matthew Roberts; colorist, Owen Gieni; letterer, Pat Brosseau; editor, Sean Mackiewicz; publisher, Image Comics.

It’s a fast issue. Only after I finished it did I realize all the pseudo-science takes up a lot of space–not just in the issue, but in the reader’s imagination. Dingess doesn’t spend any time trying to provoke the reader to consider this issue, not until the end and then it’s only for a pay-off.

Lewis or Clark–they’re basically still interchangeable, since Destiny is more an action thriller than anything else–one of them, anyway, talks about the girl they’re supposed to meet. And how are Dingess and Roberts going to introduce Sacagawea into this alternate history?

It’s like an easter egg reward for people who have taken grade school United States history.

The green zombie stuff is cool–though reminds a little of a Swamp Thing arc from the early nineties–everything is cool. It’s a good issue. The creators are seemingly priming to wow.

CREDITS

Writer, Chris Dingess; artist, Matthew Roberts; colorist, Owen Gieni; letterer, Pat Brosseau; editor, Sean Mackiewicz; publisher, Image Comics.

It’s a mix of an action issue and a (fake) science issue. Lewis and Clark try to figure out the creature they’ve discovered–with some great notes about its physiology–before the buildup to the action sequence begins.

And I’ve got to get it out of the way–the cliffhanger, which hinges entirely on the zombie zeitgeist and the reader’s familiarity with it, works. It’s incredibly creepy thanks to Roberts’s art. I’m sure Dingess will have a good explanation for it–he sort of hints at one earlier in the issue–but the cliffhanger’s effective. Even if it’s a zombie.

The issue’s just all around good. Roberts handles the panicked conversation scenes as well as he does the chase through the forest. He and Dingess aren’t playing with a familiar drama; the Lewis and Clark era of American exploration only gets play every fifteen years or so.

Destiny’s working well.

CREDITS

Writer, Chris Dingess; artist, Matthew Roberts; colorist, Owen Gieni; letterer, Pat Brosseau; editor, Sean Mackiewicz; publisher, Image Comics.