What’s scarier than a Scorpion-Bear? How about Porcupine-Monkey things? The woman who saved our trio at the very end of the last issue has taken them into her home while Orchid's brother heals. Simon writes in his journal about the old woman named Opal and her horse Radius. Probably the last normal animal on the planet, the horse is actually unfamiliar to Simon since it’s not trying to kill him. He describes the events that lead them there; mostly that Opal put on the mask and wasn’t killed by it. Now she mumbles only to the horse or sings as the rest of them feel like hostages rather than guests. Finally Orchid can’t take it any longer and decides to take her brother and leave, but Opal stops her by finally speaking to them. She tells them the story of her life. Opal was a survivor of one of the cannibal barges thanks in part to a younger General China (the masks original owner), then only known as China. After several years the boat finally found land and Opal, China and his father came to shore and were some of the few to survive the animal attack that waited for them. After running for as long as they could they were captured by what posed as the “civilization” of the time. They brought forth the mask with the red star on the front and placed it on China’s father, which killed him. But when they put it on China he was transformed and made more powerful.

At the end of the story, Opal tells them that they need to leave; confused Orchid and the two guys head out into the wild to fend for themselves. Opal meanwhile loads up all of her guns and swords and then plants a bomb to blow up her home with the Porcupine-Monkey’s inside. Why they were inside when no one was there to eat or kill didn’t make much sense, but whatever. Also I'm not sure why Opal pushed them all away just to join them a few minutes later.

This continues to be a good book, but I feel like each issue spends a lot of time explain the world they live in rather than showing me how the world is. I still really like it and enjoy the story and art, but I’m hoping that with the fourth issue we’ll kick off something new and stop living in the past that created the world. All-in-all though, this is a good damn book that you should check out. Again this book is available in print and digital today as Dark Horse goes “day and date” with all of their releases. If you missed the first two they're worth picking up as well.

Score: 3/5

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics