I don’t really know what to make of Potter’s Field, the Mark Waid-written three issue miniseries from Boom! Studios that just wrapped up. It has some nice Paul Azaceta artwork and an interesting premise. But with only three issues in this series, it feels too slight, probably due to the odd structure of the mini. The first issue was a one-shot story, establishing John Doe, his need for justice and the Shadow-like network of assistants and informants he’s built around him. The second issue began a new story where Doe tries to find woman’s missing/murdered twin sister. That story concludes in the third and final issue of the mini. The second issue was the best of this series, exploring Doe and his drive to discover the identity of nameless murder victims and to find some kind of justice for them.
Issue 3 begins with John Doe surrounded by thugs with many guns aimed at his head and he stays that way for 3 pages. After that, the book becomes one big chase as the thugs try to catch him and Doe outwits them one by one. It’s all fairly standard, routine and rather forgettable. In the first two issues, Waid managed to do some interesting setup for Doe and his network, layering good mysteries with some intriguing characters. Issue #3 is like the last 15 minutes of a television action/drama show, where all the groundwork has been laid out and they’re just racing to the end of the story. It’s not bad but seeing that this is one third of the story, it seems like too much time is spent on a chase instead of more world building.
I hope that there will be more Potter’s Field because I think this concept needs to be better and more completely developed. Everything that Waid and Azaceta set up is interesting and there are a lot of possibilities for John Doe and his band of assistants but this first miniseries is rather light and unsatisfying.
Potter’s Field #3
Written by: Mark Waid
Drawn by: Paul Azaceta
Colored by: Nick Filardi
Lettered by: Ed Dukeshire