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Athos, Porthos, and Lovey continue their search for Doc. While on a high speed chase through different worlds and dimensions, they will learn more about one another and what makes them so different. What they end up discovering will change everything “man’s best” thought the knew.
- Written by Pornsak Pichetshote
- Art by Jesse Lonergan
- Letters by Jeff Powell
- Published by BOOM! Studios
Man’s Best Goes on a Wild Ride!
Athos, Porthos, and Lovely stand at the doorstep into a myriad of worlds and dimensions. It seems like a frightening and daunting task, but Down into the rabbit hole they go in search of their caretaker Doc and the rest of the ships crew. With Porthos’ confidence now in charge, the team seems to be functioning a little better. Athos accepts the demotion of sorts and learns more about their peers as they follow the scent of Doc through upside down worlds, wispy dimensions, and cities full of aliens and abstract life forms. Once they catch the “kidnapper” they’ll have learned a lot more about themselves, and Doc.
Pornsak Pichetshote and the Writing in Man’s Best
Pichetshote has taken us as readers on a journey of self discovery through the eyes of three enhanced emotional support animals. The character development is riveting stuff. To see Athos start this journey so full of confidence and now learning that she isn’t the leader she thought she was. That process continues in issue 4 as Athos puts her trust in Pathos who has faith in her abilities and believes in herself to the point that others do to. Athos accepts her role as support to Pathos, but learns that confidence alone isn’t enough to lead either.
How did Athos, Pathos, and Lovey get here?!
Pathos gives faith to the others as their journey progresses, but there’s a point where “If we just believe” doesn’t cut it anymore. Not all solutions can be solved if you just push through head first. Some solutions require a moment to think and develop a strategy.
Emotions Get Heavy in Man’s Best
A lovely and poignant moment in this book is when we get a look into Lovey’s backstory. Lovey had faith in his first masters. They left him behind in an abandoned home only to wake up in a shelter. After that he’s left again to a shelter. Lovey’s had a much harder go of things than the others, so for him, “faith” is hard to come by.
It’s Athos realization that the three of them are so vastly different that they can’t work together like a traditional team. Athos understands that they will have to accept each others strengths AND weaknesses if they’re to ever survive and find Doc.
A Happy Reunion and A Terrible Discovery
Once the team makes it through their wild high speed chase, the find what they call the “Don’t Touch”. This was a structure aboard their ship that they were tasked with guarding from others, and were never allowed to enter. It’s here that they find the Captain. He’s astonished to see them, as he never really believed in their ability to be successful in field missions. The happy reunion doesn’t last long though as they are ambushed by the robot they used to train against and everything they thought they knew is turned upside down.
Jesse Lonergan is Man’s Best Artist
Jesse Lonergan continues to think outside of the box in his designs for these abstract worlds and beings. Everything feels so fresh and interesting to the eye. You can’t help but spend time on each panel, adsorbing the different dimensions and the intricacies of each new world that the three animals travel through. Everything presents a new angle and art style. Honestly, Lonergan is putting on a clinic and demonstrating a wine variety of art theory and history.
More of Man’s Best issue 1 and issue 2
Everything Points to 8.8/10
Man’s Best has been a journey of self discovery and in this issue Pichetshote takes that into the deep end. All three main characters grow quite a bit in this issue as we learn more about who they are and what their limits truly are. Athos proves to be the most observant of this and takes a big leap forward in turns of character development. The artwork in this issue only gets better (somehow) and Lonergan puts his signature on every panel. This issue will be worth rereading just to discover new things that you missed the first time. Tension rises in this issue and leaves us with a cliffhanger that will be quite satisfying to see resolved.
