The Recount #3 - Scout Comics

THE RECOUNT No. 3, March 2021

Pitilessly playing upon the paranoia of the reader in his earnest endeavour to ensure that none of this comic’s cast are wholly trusted to keep Meredith McDearmon safe and well, Jonathan Hedrick’s script for Issue Three of “The Recount” initially seems more focused with undermining the loyalty of the American President’s personal protectors through a string of interrogation-based panels than depicting the disconcerting violence seen inside the mini-series’ previous instalments. But this approach soon changes once the publication turns its attention to “a standoff between the Police Department and armed citizens in the town of Macon, Georgia.”

Indeed, the Florida-born writer’s decision to suddenly throw this book’s audience a savagely violent curveball straight after such sedentary scenes in which Special Agent Barto and her boss are shown munching away on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, genuinely seems to add an extra layer of brutally to the cold-blooded execution of Public Order Team A when they are ordered to about face and have their heads literally blown off by their shotgun-wielding work colleagues; “This is yours now. Use it. Let them know you won’t be threatened.”

Equally as entertaining, though somewhat less physically vicious, is Hedrick’s well-penned meeting between the clown-faced ghoul behind America’s barbaric uprising and the White House’s former resident. The surprisingly intimate familiarity between the two characters smacks of just how well-planned and deeply rooted the bloody revolution actually is, as well as showing just what a truly deranged, yet dedicated, killer the rebellion’s mysterious leader is when the previous president is suddenly assassinated towards the end of their friendly conversation, courtesy of a poisonous “bottle of whiskey from Woodrow Wilson’s own supply.”

Adding plenty of emotion and raw action to this publication’s proceedings is Gabriel Ibarra-Nunez’s prodigious pencilling. The freelance illustrator’s double-splash showing off the specialist skills Kanaan’s hand-picked team of murderers is suitably reminiscent to something seen in a super-hero comic book when an arch-villain summarises the nefarious attributes of their latest criminal gang. Whilst the shockingly sad demise of Public Order Team A somehow manages to capture the stunned surprise of both the victims and onlookers as the ‘loyalist’ police officers are mercilessly gunned down.

Writer: Jonathan Hedrick, Artist: Gabriel Ibarra-Nunez, and Colorist: Sunil Ghagre