Undiscovered Country #3 is out 1/15/2020. — **Undiscovered Country #3** is out 1/15/2020.

By Jarred A. Luján — Oh, man. Undiscovered Country has been the talk of the comics town for a minute now. Ever since its announcement, which revealed that the book would see heavy-hitter writers Charles Soule and Scott Snyder teaming up with Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniel Orlandini on interiors, the hype behind this book has only increased. Then it was announced that it had been optioned for a film franchise…before the first issue ever hit the shelves. Basically, the momentum has always been there for this book.

Truthfully, though, I tend to think that much momentum is not the best thing for a brand new comic. It really raises the expectations for the first few issues, when a book is still just getting started. I think that was the problem I initially ran into when I was reading Undiscovered Country. I dug the first two issues, sure. The world Camuncoli and Orlandini was illustrating was brilliant and new, and inside of it, we saw things we really hadn’t seen before. The premise was timely and fresh enough…a country just sealing up altogether. But, it never really left what felt like a Mad Max vibe for me. I kept kind of waiting for this thing to blow my hair back with something that I hadn’t really seen before, and through two issues, I didn’t entirely feel that way. I kept reading because I knew that expectation was sort of too much, that the momentum had maybe outran the pacing on it for me, personally.

Then, I read #3. Hot damn.

Undiscovered Country #3 really establishes this book as something unique, unlike any story that has come before. We are finally, finally in a place that we’ve never seen (…so, it’s like, undiscovered?). Past that, the pacing here is phenomenal, the way we really get to dive into a character’s history while also seeing how it relates to the present really hooked me from page to page. Meanwhile, payoff from the second issue’s big reveal continues to increase the tension. The ending page is just such a great hook. It’s absolutely phenomenal. We should all have faith in Soule and Snyder, because this comic delivers in a big way.

Camuncoli and Orlandini continue their fire streak of creating a world that is both horrifying and mysterious, immersing the audience in a new wild place that also happens to be the United States of America. Here, though, we get more of their emotional flexing. Kenyatta’s backstory and the way it’s fleshed out, the range of emotions he flies through, involves so much wonderful character acting by Camuncoli and Orlandini. In the end, I think it’s safe to say that this is the book’s best issue yet, and we should all be excited about this story’s future.

Overall: Undiscovered Country continues to earn its momentum and build into a unique story. This third issue is, perhaps, the chapter that really elevates Undiscovered Country from a good comic to a great comic. 9.0/10

Undiscovered Country #3
Writers: Scott Snyder & Charles Soule
Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Daniele Orlandini
Colorist: Matt Wilson
Letterer: Crank!
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99

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Jarred A. Luján makes comics, studies existential philosophy, and listens to hip-hop too loudly. For bad jokes and dog pictures, you can follow him on Twitter.