By Ben Snyder
Kill The Minotaur #3 is another example of how to craft an interesting story from a famous fable. Chris Pasetto, Christian Cantamessa, and Lukas Ketner continue to take a story everyone has heard before and make it their own by focusing on the characters and the history of the labyrinth.
I loved how the issue started off between King Minos and Glaucus. Pasetto and Cantamessa do a perfect job of showing just how insane King Minos is. Obviously, a king who sends sacrifices to his man/bull/scorpion/thing child is not right in the head, but Minos seems to believe that his son is the next step in human evolution or a tool he can use to achieve even further global domination- further cementing his place as a certifiable nutball.
The group dynamic between the sacrifices is not as successful in this issue, unfortunately. Tensions start to boil as Theseus’s group begins to distrust the Cretans and Princess Ariadne and it begins to seem a little cliché at this point. I understand some of the Athenians would not trust the Cretans in this situation, but come on guys; there is a giant killer abomination hunting you guys down, put aside your petty differences.
I appreciate the fact that Pasetto and Cantamessa are still playing with the idea that Theseus is still juvenile and not the best choice for a leader. However, I do wish he would grow up a little. It’s been several issues now, and he has seen some crazy things that would normally instigate some character growth, but instead, he touches a statue’s boob… Luckily this immaturity triggered a hallucination in which Theseus decapitated his father, so hopefully, he will grow a little.
Lukas Ketner’s art is engaging and a horrifying companion to the script. I can go on and on about character designs, but the real star of the show is the Minotaur. Despite the limited scenes we get with him in this issue, he still steals the show and leaves me wanting more Minotaur action. One scene in which the sacrifice is crawling under the wall and all we see is the minotaur’s face crying yellow ooze is horrifying and amazing.
Equally as horrifying was the scene in which the wall leaped out and grabbed Theseus. The ways in which the maze looks and interacts with its prisoners continues to intrigue and captivate me.
Kill the Minotaur is consistently proving to be an amazing series. For this reason, I am going to have to be stricter when scoring it. This issue while still great is simply not as good as the ones that came before it for a couple of reasons and because of this, the score will be lower. However, this series is great week in and week out, and if anyone is interested in comics or Greek mythology, I’d recommend this series without any hesitation.
Score: 3/5
Kill the Minotaur #3
Image Comics