In Review: The Collector: Unit 731 #3

Synopsis: This month on The Collector: Unit 731. Facing the horrors of history . . . James should be dead . . . and Dr. Sadao Shuzen is eager to get the inside scoop and see just what’s keeping him alive. But there are Nazi officers on site putting the doctor, prisoners, and their guards all on edge. With vivisection in his near future, escape might be James’s only way out—if he doesn’t want to leave in a body bag.

The Story

Having survived being infected by a deadly virus in the first issue. James and his fellow prisoner are planning their escape. Meanwhile, Dr. Sadao who is aware of James is looking forward to getting him on one of his operating tables to try and figure out how the man survived. However, a visit from a delegation of Nazi Officers throws a spanner in the works for Sadao as it delays him from performing his vivisection on James.

The Artwork

Will Conrad continues to give us some really solid art, which perfectly illustrates the bleakness of the Japanese Prison Camp. We get some great panels set just outside the camp where it is snowing. We see James and his prison mate plan out their escape. While James walks his mate through the plan. We see some nice illustrated panels of them hiring a guide to help get them into Russia.

We also get a fantastic visual of James lying on Sadao’s operating table on the final page of the book. And prior to that, we see one of the inmates being waterboarded.

Overall. Conrad’s art continues to do a brilliant job of giving us strong visual references to the bleakness and brutality of life in Unit 731.

Overall

Rod Monteiro story continues to offer up some interesting and fun twists. The Nazi Officers turned up to retrieve their men. Only to learn that they have another man who is in this prison camp makes for some interesting tension. We also get more insight into the events via little snippets that are taken from testimony from various officers that were recorded after events in the camp.

We get left off with a great cliffhanger in this issue, which is likely to keep me on the edge of my seat for close to a month.