Stranger Things #3 Review!

We continue with Will’s journey into the Upside Down with the comic book guidance of Jody Houser and Stefano Martino.  The art by Martino is moody and keeps the tension.  Will Byers is fearful looking into the darkness and we see that he is under a statue of an angel with the strange vines of the Upside Down.  There is a flashback where we get Will going to the basement of Mike’s house.  He hears the report that the search for Will has been called off and he is presumed dead.  Will runs out of the house.  He returns to his house and uses the Christmas lights hung on the wall by his mother.  Will spells out “NOT DEAD” through the lights.  He tries to use the walkie talkie, sings The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go”(1982) which was played by his brother, Jonathan, and cries under a poster of Jaws.  This brings back memories of his Dungeons & Dragons group, Lucas and Dustin who decide their characters will head for supplies to defend a town from an army.  Will follows along.  Dungeon Master Mike notes that there is a suspicious presence.  

Will wakes up hearing The Clash’s song and he sees a round portal to the ordinary world, but can’t break through.  He faintly sees his mother, but then he hears the Demigorgon!  She tells Will to run with Demigorgon right behind him.  This is the fourth episode, “The Body.”  Will hides in a sewer opening, then into a cemetery.  He returns to his house and hears the voice of his father, Lonnie, at the portal.  This is seen in the fifth episode, “The Flea and the Acrobat.”  Will screams for him and then smashes a chair against the portal.  Will walks in the woods and sees hears from a wounded man bleeding on the forest floor.  He is the hunter, Dale, who was out with his fellow hunter Henry, when they were attacked by the Demigorgon.  Their story was in Stranger Things: The Story of Henry and Dale (2017) made by a fan.  Will tries to reassure him, but Dale dies.  He hears Nancy’s voice and the Demigorgon is searching for her.  Will throws rocks that distracts the Demigorgon so she can escape.  He tries to run for the portal, but it closes.  Will is the hero, even though he doesn’t escape, he is able to help Nancy leave the Upside Down. A solid issue that answers a few questions.     

Four Walkie Talkies out of Five!

#StrangerThings, #LonnieByers, #NancyWheeler, #TheStoryofHenryandDale