Adrian's group encounters a green gigantic monster bear dinosaur in the woods. Stranger things occur as the insect bite in Calder's arm begins to emit pheromones which had led the monster to them in the first place. Crazy bugs soon emerge from the inflammation and emitted more pheromone gasses to the group. The issue ends with the group seeing an Aztec temple.
The Good:
This issue gave us a lot of crazy stuff. Pheromone releasing bugs that are almost the same size as a cat? That is really intense. Imagine if that was a mosquito ready to suck on your blood. It sure does beat going to the hospital and having a blood donation.
Aside from the strange creatures, a lot of scenes also took place at Bay Point Preparatory High School. The struggle for control and order has emerge, which is seen through the disassemble of the student body.
This ensuing tension was greatly given to us by the creators of The Woods.
The Bad:
One can't just wait to get hold of the next issue in order to know what happens next to the group.
The Verdict:
The 3rd issue of The Woods reveals to us that even after being abducted by aliens, the evil nature of man shows. As Bay Point Preparatory High faces dictatorship and the group in the woods struggle for survival, the instinct to live surpasses among other things.
The Woods just gets more exciting as we ponder for the connection of the Aztec temple in all of this.
It has been a fun ride with the previous issue as the gang rushes to flee Riverdale High and seek security in the Lodge Mansion.
In the 3rd issue, the story is mostly told in the perspectives of Hiram Lodge. A lot of things we're seen in the life of the family of the Lodge. They tell of the beginning of Lodge Industries in Riverdale. Even the determination of the gender of the first child of Hiram and Hermione Lodge by two spinsters, who are just Sabrina's aunts, were narrated. A lot of Riverdale characters were seen to be zombified in this issue, with the addition of two new ones from Archie's gang that sought safety in the Lodge Mansion. This issue ends with a zombie bark for Archie in his house.
"Fine, let's have the "We're-safe-in-here-it's-INSANE-for-you-to-go-out" conversation instead." - Betty
This issue continues the nice pace that the first 2 issues had set up. This time it gives the zombie apocalypse view on the different insights and emotions of the other residents of Riverdale. Sacasa and Francavilla really had superb skills in telling this story. One can really feel the diversity of the personalities of the different residents of Riverdale. From the scared Veronica up to the worrisome Hiram, they really had done a good job in telling their story. Another example is seen on the panels wherein Nancy and Ginger are riding on a motorcycle. On one panel it shows the ambitious and happy escape which is contrary to the other that depicts the realistic and worrisome escape from Pop Tate.
From The Vault: Chilling Adventures In Sorcery ~ Horripilate Host
Illustrated and Story by: Dick Giordano
The story is about the show Creeper Features that is shown every Saturday at 10:30 p.m. It is hosted by Sedgewick. This short comic follows his story of evil especially whenever the cameras has stopped filming. Later on he gets his punishment after reading some pages from a Demonomicon book.
This is a nice story from the vault. It is the kind of stuff that would be great to be read as a closing short story after every issue of Afterlife with Archie.
Overall, this 3rd issue of Afterlife with Archie has been an exciting read. Let us see what happens to the confrontation in store for us between a dog and his owner.
The story continues after Debbie's death due to her act of jumping off a building. This act was made after a demon possessed her. This event also led to Joe's death as he tried to save her. The only difference soon after was that he came back alive but Debbie didn't.
In this issue, Joe finds Sarah, Debbie's sister, unfortunately on the same county morgue. An interesting object, which he calls as a soul-stone is shortly introduced that has the capacity to talk with a dead body's residual soul. However, amidst this tool, it only left him a dead end. Thus, clues for this case were closing one after the other. The story of how Joe and Laura had met was told in this issue. It was told that they had met after Joe incurred an accident while doing his job as a button man. The issue ends with Laura being pulled out of the place that both of them considered to be heaven due to the safety it gives to both her and Joe. After being unconscious for some time, Laura then awakens in front of the person, who is responsible for her death, in a place Joe last expects her to be in.
The art and story continues to be impressive. There's just a typographical error on the 2nd page on the part wherein it narrates the previous events that occurred in the 2nd issue of Ten Grand. This 3rd issue was well told most especially by Templesmith in his illustrations, wherein the emotions of the characters can already tell the story without many lines needed. My favorite panel in this issue would be the part wherein there are three illustrations of Joe and Laura in a single page. In the middle, which is also the largest scene, shows them to be at the beach. The lower left scene shows them having a meal while on the other side shows them to be in a car. This illustration of love is a good page made by Templesmith. This issue continues to show a story of love beyond death, amidst the presence of angels and demons. It still is one sweet love story.
"Love is the only thing worth dying for. I should know, I've done it plenty of times." - Joe Fitzgerald
