Mick Foley’s RPM # 3 is a fast paced, action packed comic that is hurtling ever closer to its explosive finish, if only I had kept up with the series would have made a lot more sense.  

For new readers the issue does gradually lay out the story for you. Paul Revere is kind of like Jason Statham’s character in The Transporter, he gets a package he delivers it and he’s never lost a delivery. He’s so good at what he does because he can see all the angles with his hyper -kinetic depth perception. Yeah I hadn’t heard of that before either but basically it means if he throws something at you, it’s going to hit you and it’s going to hurt. Anyway as you can probably guess the series sees Paul lose one of his packages, but it’s not the one he thought it would be. 

As you’d expect from a series about a high speed courier the story moves quickly and Foley throws in plenty of twists and turns along the way. Paul has altercations with criminals, the bodyguards of an African ambassador and the police while he tries to reclaim the package that he’s lost. Reading RPM you get the feeling that story isn’t going to be high on the agenda but, in fact, it is. There’s a plot that feels like it could be at home in a spy film mixed with the historical context of the real Paul Revere giving the story surprising depth. I genuinely found myself interested in the story, even after only reading issue 3, and that was highly unexpected.  

Interesting the art on the cover is very different to the art in the issue. The cover is very smooth and uninspiring but inside the art has this really rough, feel to it that’s all angles and edges that really works with the comic seeing as Revere can see all the angles and use them to his advantage. The fact that it’s a comic about speed and action also means that this style really lends itself well to portraying that focus. Of particular note was the issue’s use of shading on the characters to show light. Under the catacombs of Washington DC Revere was drenched in darker tones and shading to show that it was a place devoid of light and then, top-side, the shading is toned down and the colour fully restored. About the only area RPM’s art falls flat is backgrounds. Quite often they are just blobs of colour, with little detail (save for a few pages) but in a way this works to highlight the issues character designs.  

RPM #3 is a fast-paced action adventure piece that actually has a good story to boot. The action is always new due to Revere’s hyper -kinetic depth perception and the art suits the feel of the story very well. A surprisingly good read.