There’s blood and it’s getting all over the place. Max is beating the hell out of Jelly. Max is looking for a kid. He’s looking for a very specific kid. He knows that Jelly knows where the kid is. The thing is...deep down, Max knows where the kid is too. Doesn’t have to beat the info out of Jelly. That’s just extra. And there’s SO much extra in Precious Metal #3. Writer Darcy Van Poelgeest continues a dreamy, trippy nightmare story with artist Ian Bertram and colorist Matt Hollingsworth. The brutal, vicious nightmare of the story continues to grind its way into far darker territory with the latest installment of the series.

Jelly’s betrayal could have been predicted. There was no doubting that. Maybe Max is losing his touch. Maybe his instincts aren’t quite as good as they had been in the past. Max is going to have to go into the Temple of the Twelve as their mission to rid the world of “old flesh” reaches a whole new level. Things seem all the more bleak as new revelations come to light, but Max doesn’t exactly have a choice. He knows what he has to do and he’s going to have to do it.

Van Poelgeest continues to deliver a story that might benefit from slightly clearer and more lucid narration. Precisely what it is that’s going on is a bit difficult to follow in places. If the author’s story WAS any more clear, though, it would lose a considerable amount of surreal dreaminess...and THAT is what makes Precious Metal so unspeakably beautiful: the poetry of it all. Van Poelgeest is bringing something to the page that has a reality all its own that seems to exist just barely beyond the realm of safe and easy comprehension. 

Bertram’s art builds a richly textured background that serves as a powerfully visual foundation to the story. The thickly oppressive ink work that Bertram is bringing to the page is immersed in Hollingsworth’s dark and shadowed colors. There’s a dense amplification of dreamy darkness that feels elegantly crude in places. There’s an immersive intensity about the world of Precious Metal that continues to be powerfully memorable and deeply engaging. What’s on the page isn’t realistic. It’s something beyond realism with a depth all its own. The is absolutely essential to the story as Van Poelgeest’s story could easily get annihilated by the darkness and shadow of the more earthbound realism of lesser artists.

It’s difficult to believe that Precious Metal is only just now reaching its halfway point. The overall pacing and structure of Darcy Van Poelgeest’s  story feels extremely weighty. The narrative has been through so much already. Max has already been through a powerful kind of hell. The darkness that’s going to come with a deeper sense of intensity is only going to grow over the course of the second half of the series. The story has already been through a great deal of darkness. There’s no telling what lies ahead.

Grade:  A