Jericho Season 3 - Civil Wars: Issue #3

Synopsis (SPOILER ALERT): Jericho Thread: Eric and his mom await the arrival of Emmett Green, her brother  and his uncle, who is coming to town from the eastern states for Eric’s wedding. When he arrives on the bus he comments to the two about the number of ASA checkpoints he had to go through to get there. Also arriving on the bus is Skylar who had gone to New York looking for her parents with no success. However, she tells Dale that she managed to work a deal for some medical supplies that he can sell at a huge profit while still undercutting J&R. We then see Emmett and Gail reminiscing about Johnston while paying respects at his grave site before switching to the wedding where Stanley is standing in for Jake as Eric’s best man. The wedding goes off without a hitch, but during the reception Emmett stands to make a toast and instead berates the people of Jericho for accepting the presence of the ASA. This nearly leads to a brawl, but Gray Anderson steps in to diffuse the situation. Emmett leaves with Gail and he tells her Johnston would have never stood for this, but she rebukes his criticisms and tells him he does not understand the situation. Emmett tells Gail that the people of Jericho have gotten too comfortable and that “it comes with a cost.” Then we see someone hanging up a recruiting poster for the ASA army.

New Mexico Thread: Jake and Hawkins, who had jumped a train, arrive in a deserted town. There, they meet up with Chavez, Hawkins’ previous CIA contact who has been working undercover in the ASA military. He reveals a helicopter which they will use to break into the facility where John Smith is being held captive. We then see the helicopter approaching a military prison but it fails to acknowledge a radio summons. It then crashes and as rescue vehicles with military personnel arrive on the scene Hawkins and Jake and their team jump them. They use the ambulance to enter the prison as Hawkins holds the driver at gun point. Once inside, they immediately focus on the task of freeing John Smith as quickly as possible. They force their way into the control room and determine Smith’s location but alarms begin to sound indicating their presence has been detected. Hawkins then flips a switch opening the gates to all the cells allowing the prisoners to escape and provide a distraction. Hawkins and Jake make their way to Smith’s cell and as they burst in he quips that they must have received his message.

Comments: Yet another excellent issue and I have to say that this series has really exceeded my expectations so far and has done a magnificent job of carrying on the feel of the television series. As each segment plays out, I can just see and feel the original actors leaping off the page. In fact, this issue really made me regret once again that CBS cancelled the show because the hour long format would have allowed them to expand on the stories relegated to only 22 pages in the comic book. Still, the writers make the most of those pages and cram in a ton of story while also succeeding in not making us feel they are throwing too much at us at once (like what we saw with the second season because they were trying to get too much into only seven episodes). And Alejandro F. Giralbo’s artwork continues to excel as well. He does a fantastic job of capturing not just the likeness of the original actors but also the mannerisms of the characters they portrayed. I just can’t say enough good about this series and if you are a Jericho fan who has not started following it yet, it’s time to jump on board.