Comic Review: Debris #3 / Written by: Kurtis J. Wiebe / Art by: Riley Rossmo / Publisher: Image / Release: Out Now
When the series was announced several months ago, Debris looked to be one of the most promising new titles of the year. The first two issues sadly failed to live up to its potential but the blueprints for something great were there. With the series’ third issue, writer Kurtis J. Wiebe is tapping into all of that raw potential by expanding the dystopian world of Debris and, most importantly, fleshing out the personality of his main character, Maya.
The issue opens with a flashback of a young Maya and her mentor, Calista, taking on a sentient trash monster while Calista imparts some words of wisdom on her young charge. In a handful of pages, Wiebe gives us a better look at what makes Maya tick than he has in the previous two issues. Even at her young age, Maya is headstrong, fiercely loyal, and a spunky fighter. Calista’s words ring true as we switch back to the present day, where Maya and her reluctant partner Kessel are faced with a foe even larger than last issue’s Jormungand. “Fight until your last breath,” Calista intones and that attitude, along with her own cleverness, carries Maya through her next battle.
Until this issue, it’s been difficult to relate to Maya. Whether it’s because we aren’t given much information about her or because Wiebe hasn’t given readers much reason to care about her, Maya had thus far been an uninspiring character. In Debris #3, we finally get a feel for Maya’s personality as she embarks on a perilous journey beyond the confines of Maiden in search of life’s most necessary element: water. As Maya and Kessel make their way through a landscape that’s completely foreign to them – grass, and trees, and snow, oh my! – they learn that they aren’t the only living things outside Maiden’s walls.
Riley Rossmo’s art is undeniably visually appealing but it has a tendency to slip into the territory of Too Pretty. When Maya and Kessel take on the mechanical beast, Rossmo conveys a sense of motion and chaos that’s been lacking in the series thus far, but soon falls into the trap of creating lovely, if somewhat static, tableaus once the action has passed. Despite its handful of flaws, Debris #3 steadily builds upon the promise of the first two issues and this installment inspires confidence that the series will only keep getting better.
