Injection vol. 3

Vol. 2 of this series was one of the best things I read last year and proof that Warren Ellis can still knock it out of the park when he puts his mind to it.  So it’s disappointing to see that vol. 3 of “Injection” doesn’t keep to the same standards.  The focus this time is on Brigid Roth, the technologist of the Injection team, and if her character bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain Doctor I can assure you that after reading Ellis’ weekly newsletters it’s purely intentional.  She’s been tasked with investigating the death of a man whose skeleton was found chained to the center rock in a stone circle.  It doesn’t take much for Brigid to find out that this death is tied to local mythology involving Merlin and something known as the Cold House, but the connection it has to the Injection itself spells danger for a great many people indeed.

The biggest problem with this volume is that there’s a lack of urgency for most of its length.  Yes, there’s a dead body to kick off the plot but most of the first half involves Brigid and her female companion slowly investigating things and getting the lay of the land.  Things do pick up once the Other World starts to come into the picture and people start getting their flesh stripped from them right down to their bones.  It does finish reasonably strong with the Injection team facing a potential betrayal from one of their own, yet it’s hard to say that these late-stage developments make up for the lacklustre first half.  Much like the story itself, Declan Shalvey’s art really doesn’t come truly alive until the action starts and people start dying grisly deaths.  This was still a perfectly readable comic and I’m onboard for the (stated) two final volumes of this series.  Vol. 3 just doesn’t leave me hoping for a spin-off miniseries about the further adventures of Brigid Roth in the same way that I still desperately want to see more of Vivek Headland’s.