The unsettling events befalling the Lewis and Clark expedition continue to unfold in supernaturally strange ways in Manifest Destiny #3. The famed explorers had set forth for the small encampment of La Charette, near what we know as St. Louis, in search of a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, but what they’ve found is something beyond their understanding.
In the previous two issues, not only has the party had to deal with dissension and skullduggery within the ranks of the low-lives and ne’er-do-wells that comprise it, but they’ve also run afoul of strange savage buffalo creatures with human torsos. One attacked them, but was then killed and dissected for Lewis’ research, as they’re scrambling for what to call this thing. Minotaurs are part bull, not buffalo, but that’s the best term they have – and nomenclature isn’t their chief concern, because there are a whole herd of those buffa-taurs out there, and they’ve abducted, killed and eaten some of their party members, and drove the rest of them into the fort that was La Charette, and, much to their chagrin, is now the home to weird-ass plant zombies.
Manifest Destiny #3 brings the focus fully on those creatures, who were once the denizens of La Charette, now transformed by some sort of strange viral fungal infection that ate them from the inside out and spread through physical contact… and now, one of them puked something fierce on one Sgt. Floyd. Having cycled through guns and blades to try and put them down, they finally settled on fire, which is a method sanctioned by Magdalene Boniface, one of the last survivors of the original La Charette encampment. We can be pretty sure Floyd will become a plant goon before too much longer, but it seems Lewis and Clark were supposed to meet a new party member, an Indian girl, but the last page shows us that she’s apparently got a bone to pick with the buffataurs. It’s a savage debut for her – not “ain’t those Indians savages’ savage but ‘wow, she looks pissed off’ savage.
Writer Chris Dingess has the monster aspect going in full gear. After the first issue gave us more of a historical bent, one might have expected more of a balance between the true and the fantastical, but no, this is a full-on creature feature that just happens to star a couple of famous explorers. While the plant zombies may seem a bit overexplained to readers well versed in the undead, it’s interesting to see characters with no pop culture crutches to lean on trying to parse what they’re dealing with. There are also some fun bits, as when Clark attempts to try dialogue with the fungoids, only to be greated with a rarrrrgh, which is enough for him to shrug and open fire. Also, artist Matthew Roberts really brings home the freak show – the panel with the plant-guy barf-fest is just Roberts going for broke. He’s very good at what he does, and what he does involves some really detailed beastly things.
Manifest Destiny so far has been about as pleasant a diversion as a book full of gruesome unpleasantries can be. Time will tell it if unfolds into something more than that. The potential is surely there.
