It’s a fantastic issue, maybe the best in the series so far. Manifest Destiny works best when Dingess is doing more than one thing at a time. This issue doesn’t have much in the way of action, unless one counts arguments and thrown soup, but it still moves at a nice, brisk pace, with the constant threat of danger.

The issue opens with a two page recap of events since the previous issue. Not much has happened. Then the expedition comes across a Native American tribe and they go talk to them. At the same time, Dingess looks at tensions with the wounded aboard the ship and flashes back to how Lewis and Clark got the job in the first place.

Not to mention Sacagawea getting a very cool little subplot of her own.

It’s a smart, carefully executed issue. Dingess and Roberts are full of surprises; rather good ones.

In some ways, this issue of Manifest Destiny is stronger than I thought Dingess and Roberts would ever actually do. It’s not high concept in the plot–Lewis is simply trying to free the ship of being stuck in the river and to get them away from the giant monster toad.

But it’s high concept in Dingess plots out this action issue. There’s the tension over the situation, but there are all these other things going on. Dingess has done so well in layering in the subplots, he can easily refer back to them with just a panel or two of Roberts’s close-ups on various characters.

Sacagawea, for example, only shows up for a couple silent appearances in panels but she’s still a presence in the comic. And the banter between Lewis and his new love interest is brief and fantastic.

Plus, there’s Lewis and Clark bonding.

Excellent stuff.

L

Dingess just can't stop with the cliffhanger problems. Manifest Destiny always has these fake cliffhangers, where Dingess is teasing what ever is going to happen next and it usually is a character's intention, not an outside event. It's an interesting narrative device, but Destiny isn't character driven. If it were, such cliffhangers might make sense.

Most of the issue is good. There's a blowout between Lewis and his female assistant and it's pretty good stuff. Dingess definitely knows how to do the talking heads scenes to give them weight; they're nice and layered. Sadly, it comes right before a confusing montage. Roberts visually implies a mutiny, which doesn't correspond to the actual scene content at all.

There's some good Sacajawea action, even though it's off-screen–Dingess can't seem to figure out what to do with her.

But the series feels a little stuck… appropriate given the expedition is, quite literally, stuck.

There's just enough disgusting creativity to pull the issue through–even if it's far from original. Dingess still has he problems with pacing and plotting, but he does get around to a few characters this issue. He's got Clark and a bunch of people stranded, while Lewis tries to figure out how to get rid of the giant monster frog. So there are a few scenes for Lewis, but a lot for the landing party.

Clark actually doesn't get much to do until the end of the issue. Instead, there's a new friend for Sacajawea and then some more rumblings of mutiny. But the big thing (pardon the pun) has to be the giant insects; they bring back Manifest Destiny's pulse in the second half of the issue.

Dingess writes some good scenes for the cast, he's just taking too much time on everything. Roberts's art can't carry the comic alone.

The problem with Manifest Destiny is too little going on in the action issues. This issue takes place over at least two days, but the way Dingess breaks out the scenes–basically two big sections of little scenes run together and then the action sequences–it just feels too fast.

Some of the problem might be Roberts’s efficiency with visualizing the scenes. There are a few times the fast pace is because the art flows so seamlessly between panels. Destiny is almost too competent at this point; Dingess knows what Roberts can handle and does try to task him with more ambitious sequences. Simultaneously, Dingess isn’t trying to do anything more with the plotting.

This issue has zero character development–unless resentment over Sacagawea counts–even though Dingess splits the cast into more manageable groups.

It almost seems like Dingess is treading water because he doesn’t know where he’s going to take the story.

Dingess and Roberts start the next arc–somewhat unannounced–with the survivors of the settlement aboard the ship. There’s very little not having to do with them–poor Pocahontas is reduced to two or three lines and background–but Dingess does take the time to detail some of the crew’s backgrounds.

It’s nearly a calm river travel story, then one of the settlers sparks an argument for Lewis and Clark and brings one of the series’s problems into focus. I can’t remember who’s Lewis and who’s Clark. I double checked and Lewis is narrator and brown-haired guy, but it barely matters. Dingess has a great concept and plotting and letting the would-be protagonists get too much spotlight isn’t in the cards.

It’s actually a very good issue in many ways and the great conclusion makes up for the bumps; overall, Dingess just hasn’t found a good narrative approach.

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.