The heroic Jet Boy has failed to stop the evil Dr Tod from detonating an alien bomb over Manhattan – and humanity will now be forever changed by the chaos that’s been unleashed.

The last issue felt like a real pulp adventure, but now that the bomb has been detonated, the third issue shifts gears to show the horrifying, seemingly random effects of the alien device.

It’s less satisfying as a result; the names of the various effects of the mutation – which refer to playing cards, with ‘Drawing the Black Queen’ referring to being killed by the virus or ‘Jokers’ as horribly mutated humans – come out of nowhere and just seem completely arbitrary.

The horror isn’t particularly well handled either; the art is just too explicit and it errs on the side of unintentionally funny more than once.

It’s a shame after the strong start of the first two issues, but there’s an intriguing cliffhanger at least – so hopefully, the final issue can course correct somewhat.