I'm really not sure where to begin with this story. The fundamental problem this book has had for all three issues is that there is not one likable character in the whole thing. Brandon is a jerk, both Utopian and Walter are jerks, and Millar hasn't bothered to help me get to know a single other member of the team well enough to like them before having them all behave in this incredibly despicable way. How I am supposed to cheer for anyone in this series after this is beyond me. Let's review the major characters thus far.
Walter is a megalomaniac who thinks he can make the world better by turning it into what amounts to a fascist state. He also clearly has an inferiority complex with regard to his brother. These things are bad enough, but then not only does he decide to kill his brother -- he's a complete coward about it, getting other people to do his dirty work and attacking by surprise. Then to top it all off, he attempts to even kill Chloe and her unborn baby, who have nothing whatsoever to do with his argument against Utopian. (Oh and by the way she's his niece.) There's no way anyone sane would cheer for this guy after this issue.
Brandon is an angst-filled teenage brat who is completely unwilling to act in a responsible way, and is driven to violent acts of rebellion against his father by his own utter selfishness. At his uncle's say-so, and with the intent of gaining power for himself, this spoiled brat kills his own father. Oh, and like his cowardly uncle, Brandon waits until his father has been beaten to a bloody, defenseless pulp before showing his face and admitting that he's part of the action. I can't possibly get behind this character either.
Grace and Utopian are dead, so there's no point in figuring out if I might be able to like them (not that I did up to this point).
Chloe might have potential, but so far she hasn't shown me anything to make me like her. She's as self-centered and unworthy of admiration as her brother, though at least she's not the sort to kill her own parents. She seems to genuinely have loved them. I don't dislike Chloe, although I don't like her either.
Hitch hasn't been in it enough for me to know whether I like or dislike him. He's a bit of a wild card at this point. I do approve of his rescue of Chloe at the end, which earns him some points in my book. But other than that I don't really know too much about him.
The rest of the "hero" team is a bunch of nameless, masked individuals whose only act of significance in three issues has been to brutally murder two of their founding members in a coup.
The mistake in this series is that Millar got too deep into the intrigue and the violence of this story before making me like any of the characters. I honestly don't care one way or the other that Sheldon (Utopian) and Grace were killed. Why should I, when I have not been made to like them? I have no interest in learning any more about Walter or Brandon, given how despicable they are as characters. Nor do I care to find out any more about the team, given how willing they all were to go along with a double-murder. Chloe and Hitch may have potential but they have not become likable yet.
We know from the editorial column that issue 4 jumps ahead 9 years to show us the consequences of these actions on the state of the world. Unfortunately, I just don't care what happens to this world, or its characters. Millar has failed at the first order of business for a writer -- he didn't make me fall in love with any of these characters. I don't see any point to continuing to read this series, especially not when there are any number of other ones out there that have made me care about their main characters.
Overall, I didn't really like this issue. I didn't find it exciting, or heart-breaking, or anything like that. I don't like any of the characters much, so I don't care what happens to them.
My rating: 4/10
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