Posted by It’s no secret that while I thoroughly enjoy Rippaverse Comics, the Yaira series has routinely underwhelmed me. As a result, I wasn’t expecting a whole to change with Yaira #3, but I still wanted to give it a chance. I’m very glad I did.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Yaira #3 picks up where #2 left off with Yaira “attacking” a city in Spain. Stephanya and Alphacore arrive to stop her, and her friend Y’shua comes to her aid again. The duo return to the ocean with Alphacore in pursuit, and they use Neptune’s wraith sons to distract Alphacore escape. Afterwards, Projexus is preparing to send another submarine down to Atlantis to bring Cleito, Neptune’s wife, to the surface, but first Yaira has to deal with the wraiths. She travels to the dream realm where she defeats them in a fight, and they pledge their services to her. She and her new band of wraiths travel above the waves and begin fighting the newly revealed Magus Kunzite–a former friend of Yaira’s who wants to avenge her beloved Magus Nuummite. But before Yaira and her wraiths can defeat the Queen of Nightmares, Yaira wakes up trapped on a ship because Y’shua betrayed her to Magus Kunzite. It’s revealed that after Yaira left her home, Y’shua viewed it as a betrayal, and he followed his leaders as they hunted her down. He watched her brutally kill those he respected, and in the process, he realized that she had changed and needed to be stopped. Yaira is able to turn Y’shua and Kunzite against each other temporarily, which allows her to call on the wraiths for help. Now freed, Yaira defeats her enemies and brings them back to Alphacore for holding. Dr. Rodell returns to Projexus, where she meets with Cleito and the rest of her Projexus team. But before they can make any new plans, someone in the room is revealed to be a mysterious figure known as Magus Painite–the leader of the Forsaken Crystal Magi, and someone who Yaira once studied under and swore oaths to. Yaira battles Painite until Y’shua and Kunzite appear to help him. Once Alphacore realizes that their prisoners have escaped, they travel to Projexus to help Yaira. The battle ends with Painite transforming Y’shua into the new Black Sorcerer, and Yaira defeating Kunzite while Painite and Y’shua escape. After the battle, Dr. Rodell talks to Cleito about what they’re going to do next about Neptune since he’ll be coming back for his wife and his trident. The comic ends with Painite talking to his fellow Magi about Yaira before leaving and having a private conversation with another Magus, revealing in the process that he was Neptune all along and that the battle is just beginning.
Yaira #3 retroactively makes #2 significantly better because it answers questions and contextualizes details that felt lacking or undeveloped. For example, I can’t deny that Y’shua’s sudden arrival on earth seemed a little strange, but the reveal that he followed his leaders and saw what happened to them completely recontextualizes his presence in #2 and makes it make so much more sense. Same with the Magi. It seemed so weird and out of place that Nuummite kept popping up in #2 but after learning that he was friends with Yaira since they were both Magi, that the Magi swear an oath that includes not killing each other, and that Nuummite’s lover is trying to avenge him, it all makes so much more sense. In other words, #2 was the set-up that #3 delivered on, and #3 did so beautifully.
The character developments and relationships present in #3 are great. Learning more about Y’shua and his betrayal could have felt like it arbitrarily came out of nowhere, but the reveal, while still unexpected, still makes sense and doesn’t feel like it was added as shock value. The same goes for Kunzite and the other Magi. I really like the villains that are starting to be established. I have a lot of questions about them and their abilities, so I’m very excited to see more of them in action in the next comic issues. I also really like their designs. Magus Nuummite was one of my favorites, but it’s cool to see that all of the Magi have unique and intimidating character designs.
As for Yaira herself, I do want to see what’s in store for her. One of the details that stands out the most about her character is that she could have killed Y’shua and Kunzite, but she chose not to. She chose to show them mercy, which definitely shows some character development after she was all too happy to kill Nuummite, Yanessa, and Yantoni. There’s definitely some character complexity that I look forward to seeing develop.
Overall, I really only have one nitpick about Yaira #3. During the battle with Painite, Kunzite, and Y’shua, Altona Daniels throws Neptune’s trident to Yaira, and she suddenly transforms and wears golden armor with multiple angelic wings. It’s a cool transformation, but that’s really all I can say. It’s a power-up that comes out of nowhere and isn’t really explained how it works. There’s no explanation of what this new form is, let alone what it does. She briefly uses it to defeat Kunzite before giving it up, but from what I’ve seen previously, she could’ve beaten Kunzite without the power-up. It just feels kind of random and undeveloped. Maybe we’ll see more of it later, but as it stands, it strikes me as a being included because it looked cool.
Turning to the art, it’s good. I think it’s a bit better than the previous Yaira comics and there aren’t any panels that stand out as having uncanny or weird faces. The fight scenes looked pretty good, though I do wish they were a bit longer. And even though I already said it, I do want to reiterate that I really like the monstrous Magi designs and I can’t wait to see them return.
SPOILERS END
Yaira #3 is the best issue in Yaira’s story yet. While I thought #1 was decent, it did have some problems here and there. I found #2 to be surprisingly weak as it spent a lot of time setting things up or establishing plot threads that were confusing and felt unfinished. I can confidently say that #3 is the best yet, and it capitalizes on a lot of the set-up that #2 started. I can now strongly recommend Yaira to anyone who enjoys comics, and if you lost interest after the first or second issues of Yaira, this is your sign to give it another chance with #3. Personally, I’m really excited to see what happens next because now that a lot of the larger players and plots have been established, I know that it’s all going to come together beautifully.
Broad Scope Entertainment 