Welcome to Defa 9 – the safest you will ever be. An advanced society under the complete control of a loyal automated military. Warbots on every street and cameras on every corner. Our huge orbital satellites are even able to protect you from the weather – and should events ever get out of hand, you’ll be happy to hear we can remotely lock you all safely in your homes! A secure and unassailable world, all under the watchful eye of our mechanical AI advisers. So should skydiving assault teams from another world attack Defa-9 – we have everything under control with absolutely zero surprises…what could possibly go wrong? Cyberarchy #3 is an interesting concept and has some intriguing ideas but overall doesn’t hold up to the quality of the first two issues.

Written by Matthew Hardy, Cyberarchy is a series that explores humanity, AI, and robots in a series of one-shot comics that have been entertaining and intriguing. The first two issues were fantastic catapulting the series to being one of the best on the shelves right now. But, Cyberarchy #3 feels a bit like a step back in quality.

Like the first two issues, Cyberarchy #3 is an intriguing tale which is intended to get readers to think about its concept and themes as well as entertains. This issue focuses more on AI and the dangers of succeeding too much to artificial overlords. It can resort in some negative consequences. With AI being such a hot topic, it’s an issue that I was looking forward to, but it doesn’t really tread any new topics and those that it does, feel rather worn and basic in their approach. The issue isn’t bad but when the first two are so good, in comparison, this one isn’t close.

The art by Clark Bint is solid. The characters, robots, and world all have an interesting look, giving a futuristic and alien feel but at the same time it’s familiar and easy to dive in to. There’s some good action and a nice flow but the art is also a bit muddied compared to the first two issues where it’s hard to make out exactly what is going on. This could be due to the fact it was read digitally, but it too feels a little like a step back. Rob Jones‘ lettering helps set the world with it all featuring a bit of character to match the various alien races.

Cyberarchy #3 has it’s moments and underneath there’s some of the quality we’ve seen, but overall this third issue just doesn’t come close to the first two in excellence. Here’s hoping it’s just a temporary bump and the next gets right back to matching the high expectations.

Story: Matthew Hardy Art: Clark Bint Letterer: Rob Jones
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.85 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read

Mad Cave Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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