The Good
LOST VEGAS #3 has my favorite opening to an issue this week. We get to see where Roland came from and the introduction to the Godspar, which ties into Roland's history greatly. Writer Jim McCann also has a knack for creating these extremely bizarre but just as interesting like Science Deer, who is this giant, bipedal deer with huge antlers that let's Roland know who is boss, right off the bat. We also get to see Ink try to connect with anyone's memories in a really cool moment on a two-page spread.
Janet Lee's page set-ups for a couple of these Ink moments is outstanding. It's very trippy, and while her pencils and inks are super-cool, I found the color work, from Chris Sotomayor, during a couple of these moments to be beautiful. His representation of light and shading through the use of color is my favorite aspect of this issue.
While the overall issue didn't "wow" me, I am still very much board with this book and this series. This issue got me a bit more invested in Roland and crew, and I have to know what happens to them next, especially after the final page of this issue.
The Bad
I'm so unsure about this story. I think the concept is brilliant, and I love the world that McCann has created, but as the reader, I feel so detached from everything going on. While there are so many concepts and characters I really enjoy throughout this issue and series, I feel like this issue really didn't grab me it all.
The other problem I have with this issue, in particular, is that like with many science fiction books, is that there's a lot of foreign (dare I say "alien?") concepts and ideas being thrown at the reader so incredibly quickly that sometimes, the reader doesn't have time to digest these ideas, much like the problem I had with the character Ink in issue #1. Now, on issue #3, I love the character now because I've had some time to understand the character more. Foreign ideas need a slower pace, sometimes. I feel this will be a much better book to read in trade, rather than issue-to-issue.
The Verdict
LOST VEGAS is a science fiction series with some brilliant ideas that has the same problem many other science fiction series have, and that's throwing too much foreign ideas at the reader too quickly. There's this very fine balance with sci-fi where you need to over-explain things to a certain extent, but not too much where we feel overburdened with exposition. This issue did both of those things. It's a tough genre to master, but this is still a good book overall. It's compelling and there's a few concepts in here that I love.
Overall, I mildly recommend this issue.