Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Existence 3.0 #1Existence 3.0 #1 of 4
Image Comics
Spencer & Salas

The sequel to the extremely well done and successful three issue mini series, Existence 2.0, debuts with an awful lot of question marks. After all, the first series concluding with its most interesting character, Sylvester, getting trapped in a female assassin's body with his eight year old daughter's mind occupying the same body onto of his brain. This essentially means the little girl controls the assassin's body with her father's mind trapped somewhere inside the same body. Can the series survive without its primary character? Another question coming in to the story is what could possibly be done to come close to the cliffhanger, surprise filled, original series? Well, this issue has some answers to these questions as it starts off the follow up mini series with shift in gears to make this series completely different from the first one.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe series is about the little girl/assassin. Time has passed and she is now a teenager mind trapped in the assassin's body. She is being handled and guided by her mother and the assassin's body's brother, Marko. Marko just so happens to be the body that Sylvester jumped into in the previous series. Marko has a bit of a sense of obligation to the little girl because Sylvester helped him and gave him back his body, and his own sister basically led the little girl to ending up in the assassin's body to begin with. She needs help because the people that helped finance the mind jumping technology want the girl, as she is the living prototype. However, she is not defenseless.

The little girl, Jenny, has retained the assassin's skills and is more than capable of defending herself. However, she needs Marko and her mother to rein her. While we learn more about Jenny, we also learn more about those that are after her and how willing they are to find her and the technology she is proof of.

The comic is a good story. It's a slower start than the previous series but that's not a bad thing. This comic is taking on more of an Ed Brubaker's Criminal feel to it as the plot is being rolled out with more precision and complex layers. This series is not relying on surprises or cliffhangers, but just straight criminal drama mixed with some science fiction.

The series does call back on a lot that occurred in the first series to help newer readers get more up to speed, but this is definitely a completely different story than the first series. We are seeing the classic renegade, but dangerous teenager, with the frustrated handlers kind of a story as in the background the immense danger is growing and looming. It's a good comic all the way around, even if it is a slower burn than the first series.

The artwork hits all the right notes as it gives some depth to Jenny's personality. She's got a lot of attitude and she is deadly at the same time. She literally has the appearance of a cute little time bomb, which suits the story perfectly. The layouts for the panels are also impressive as the comic makes use of angling the axis by forty-five degrees one way or to the other to give off some nice artistic drama. For those looking for some action, fear not, this comic has its share of bloody scenes as the Jenny the assassin is in full force right off the bat.

This comic book opens the arc with a nice initial chapter to the crime drama. It's establishing the characters and providing a foundation for a good story and buildup. It doesn't have the crazy twists from the first series as we seem to be getting back to storytelling basics. It's a great opening comic and if you are into crime dramas, like Criminal, then this is definitely worth checking out. This is shaping up to be a very good mini series.

3.5 out of 5 geek goggles