Red Knight #3 - Manos Publishing

RED KNIGHT No. 3, May 2020

Quite wonderfully managing to bring this title’s first story arc “A Knight Without A Sword” to an ultra-satisfying conclusion with the brutal defeat of Nolan Sinclair’s two hired hoodlums, it is hard to imagine many super-hero comic book fans reading Issue Three of “Red Knight” would have much to complain about. But whilst Justin Cristelli’s narrative manages to depict the wealthy mob boss’ plans lethally crashing down around the crook’s head as a result of a truly epic battle between the murderous Over Kill and the titular character, the author’s greatest achievement with this publication is arguably his ability to also pen plenty of intriguing hooks for the title’s future instalments within its bumper-packed storyline.

For starters, this twenty-six page periodical provides a tantalising insight into the murky backstory as to just how the likes of an adolescent Todd McClain, Ben Lee and Wendy Harper actually received their special powers. Having been kidnapped and experimented upon by Sinclair’s unscrupulous scientists, it is entirely evident that the trio eventually escape to become the costumed crime-fighters known today. However, just who else was abducted and what happened to them is not revealed by Detective Martha Brown, nor whether the authorities can be sure that all the criminal’s clandestine trials were actually successfully shut down.

In addition, Cristelli also reveals just how the Secretary of Super Human Affairs, Matthew Grace, goes about recruiting “talented youngsters” arrested for vigilantism into the Union of Super Heroes. This sequence provides the American author with a great opportunity to showcase the significantly larger world of Red Knight, as well as name drop some of its more notable personalities, such as “the great Captain Danger and the mysterious White Shark!”

Helping provide each and every blow with plenty of bone-breaking dynamism is artist JC Grande, whose ability to prodigiously pencil the villainous Over Kill as an insanely scary, unstoppable killing machine is debatably hard to fault. Likewise, Shiloh Penfield’s work on this comic’s “Captain Danger Origin” is similarly noteworthy, cramming in the legendary protagonist’s backstory within the space of single well-laid out sheet; “Walter Watson became Captain Danger. A hero for all. If God was testing him, I’d say he passed with honours.”

Writer: Justin Cristelli, Artists: JC Grande & Shiloh Penfield, and Colorist: Forrester Randlet