Mermaids in Trenchcoats!: ‘Mega Princess’ 3 Reviewed

That’s right, mermaids in trenchcoats, (and if that wasn’t an intentional pun, it should have been!) right there in Mega Princess 3, the latest issue of our pal Kelly Thompson’s great creator owned comic.  With Brianne Drouhard on art, M. Victoria Robado on colors, and Warren Montgomery on lettering, of course, and edited by Sierra Hahn!

But first, you’ve got to watch this:

Does that not make you want a Mega Princess cartoon, like, right now?!

It doesn’t?

Heathen.

Anyway, for those of you with impeccable taste, let me tell you about issue 3.  There’s a change of pace with this issue.  The first 2 issues were nicely and quickly paced.  This issue slows things down to a certain degree, at least in the “moving the plot forward” sense.  Other than a quick look in at Princess Max’s parents, which gives us an infodump that other princes are being kidnapped across the lands, not just baby Bobs, we stick with Max and Justine underwater as mermaids, searching for Atlantis.  It’s an interesting choice in the middle of a mystery to spend a good amount of “real estate” on what appears, from the infodump, to be a dead end.

Now, it’s not a bad thing that the plot isn’t the main motor of this issue, because we get a lot of cute character moments.  Max dove before she looked, so she goes underwater without knowing if she can even breathe.  It’s a touching moment when Justine talks Max into trying to breathe underwater, reminding her that Justine is there for her.

Luckily, once she starts breathing underwater, Max gets a fishtail, becoming a mermaid, and is able to swim, and Justine gets sweet underwater armor.  However, Max has no real idea of where Atlantis is.  Oops.

The duo try interviewing various underwater creatures in a delightful montage, but get no useable information, until the puffer fish Todd swims by.  He agrees to help, but he might be more of a detriment, as his puffer-ness…well, you’ll have to read it.

Throw in a shark attack and some gruff mermaids that are Atlantean guards that give Max and Justine a less than warm (blooded — ha! I kill me!) welcome, as well as the amusing reason of why the particular Tiny Kingdom dude was sent to send a message to Max’s parents, and you’ve got another good issue of Mega Princess!

I’ve gone back and forth on this issue.  At first I wasn’t big on the fact that “nothing happens” in the issue, but then I read it again, and I enjoy that the plot wasn’t the driver behind this issue.  I mean, can I really complain about an issue with mermaids in trenchcoats?  No.  I cannot.

While Kelly’s script nicely showed the interactions between Max and Justine and the characters they meet, Brianne Drouhard really brings it, with her facial expressions doing a lot of great work.  The fear and concern on their faces when they first go underwater are expertly done.  Max’s delight at her lower half becoming a mermaid’s is outmatched only by a prideful pony face as Justine admires her armor transformation.

Todd’s delight at informing Max and Justine that puffer fish are the “hedgehogs of the sea” is an OD of adorable!  And the shark chase scene has a wealth of fantastic facial expression work.  Max’s pride at outsmarting the shark is great as well.

Robado’s colors really sell the vastness of the ocean, with a sort of steel gray blue color to the water, almost bruise-like.  We can feel the expanse of murk.  Then the change in background color during the shark attack is wonderful.

Montgomery does decent work with lettering.  I’m assuming that Drouhard does the lettering of things like Max’s head “shakes”, but I could be wrong.  If so, Montgomery is pulling that off wonderfully.  His work doesn’t distract us, at least, and for letterers, that may be as much complimenting as they receive!

Overall, this is a great miniseries that will make a fantastic gift to all the kids in your life once it’s collected, but you should probably pick up the individual issues in the meantime to ensure Boom! collects this.  C’mon, MERMAIDS IN TRENCHCOATS!