“Cowboy Bebop #3”: The Worst Luck (But Good For Us) [Spoilery Comic Review]

The crew of the Bebop seem to be getting the worst luck in Cowboy Bebop #3. However, from the looks of it, it seems that others might have even worse luck than them.

Cowboy Bebop #3: Details

Cowboy Bebop #3 is the third issue (you can read reviews of issues #1 and #2 here) of the comic book series based on the Netflix live action adaptation of the same name, which is itself based on the universally acclaimed anime series of the same name by Hajime Yatate (comprising director Shinichirō Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane, and composer Yoko Kanno) and Sunrise Studio (now Bandai Namco Filmworks, Inc.). As for the comic book: Dan Watters is the writer for it, with Lamar Mathurin as the artist. Lisa Sterle, Netflix, Claudia Ianniciello, and Laura Braga contributed the main cover and variant covers respectively. Lastly, Titan Comics remains the publisher of this comic book series.

Cowboy Bebop #3 will go on sale on April 27, 2022 for a retail price of $3.99. You can preorder both the print and digital versions from Titan Comics. Or you can go onto Kindle yourself to preorder the digital version, since Titan Comics takes you there anyways. It’s really up to you.

Warning: spoilers for Cowboy Bebop #3 below. If you want to see the Bebop crew’s luck, or lack of it, below; then stop here, and come back once the shooting is over.

Cowboy Bebop #3: Plot Summary

Cowboy Bebop #3 picks up where we last last off: with the crew of the Bebop now hunting for a specific brand of instant noodles called “Firecracker Noodles” to give to a nutty professor so that he’ll hand over his luck vest to the crew. Even worse: the noodles are out of production. Fortunately, after 37 tries, they manage to find a store that had a whole truck-full of the noodles. It’s more than enough for the job, and the Bebop crew drive away with their prize, with Spike even eating one of them just to try it out.

Unfortunately, it seems like the other bounty hunters going after their mark were more interested in watching each other to see who struck first. First, a pair of bounty hunters try to hijack their truck from motorcycles, thinking that they had the bounty in there. The Bebop crew fight them off, only to have another bounty hunter pair arrive by spaceship and actually steal the whole truck, Jet and all. As if that wasn’t enough, another bounty hunter tries to hijack the airborne truck itself with his own spaceship, before Faye shoots it down. All in all, it seems like a wild ride worthy of “Mushroom Samba”.

All Luck Comes to an End

Unfortunately, it’s at this point in Cowboy Bebop #3 where the Bebop crew’s luck turns from bad to worse. The truck with the noodles inside end up falling into the ocean, taking the noodles with it. Not only that, but upon interrogation of the bounty hunters, the Bebop crew discover that Jet’s police contact, Fusao, was the one who tipped all the bounty hunters off. As it turns out, all he wanted was a distraction.

See, during the whole comic book issue, the nutty professor is explaining how the luck suit works to the audience. As it turns out, he was explaining to Fusao, who’d broken into his place under the auspice of being a police officer investigating him. Fusao takes the remaining luck vest, murders the nutty professor in the name of the Syndicate, and takes off now armed with all the luck in the world. Right before the nutty professor is about to explain the downside of the luck vest to boot. What is this downside? Well, that’s presumably what we’ll find out in Cowboy Bebop #4.

Cowboy Bebop #3: The Good

The story is undoubtedly the best part of Cowboy Bebop #3. Now it feels like the subtle humor of the previous issue was just a setup for the wacky, outrageous hijinks of this issue. With the seemingly endless stream of bounty hunters chasing the Bebop crew’s truck under a number of mistaken impressions or legitimate reasons, this is the most fun issue yet. This issue is definitely the true “Mushroom Samba” equivalent, and I really wish this had been part of the Netflix series.

Same goes for the characters of Cowboy Bebop #3. There was just something right about Spike Spiegel sitting down to a nice lunch of Firecracker Noodles. You know, the very rare noodles they have to deliver to the nutty professor? Along with Faye shooting down a ship with her pistol, and Jet having to bail everyone out, only for Spike to accidentally mess it all up. The characterization just feels spot-on for this issue, and I love it.

Even the art of Cowboy Bebop #3 feels like an improvement over the previous issue. I can’t tell you for certain exactly why though. The best I can feel out is that Lamar Mathurin improved the character design a bit, while getting to experiment more with the art in this issue. Maybe that’s it. The issue feels more “artsy” than the previous issues, and I think the art has improved because of that. Your mileage may vary here.

Cowboy Bebop #3: The Bad

The only bad thing I have to say about Cowboy Bebop #3 has nothing to do with the comic book issue itself. I just honestly wish that this storyline could’ve made it into the actual Netflix show. You know, before Netflix decided to cancel it after a single season. When the rating weren’t all that bad to boot. This is just me complaining about the cancellation though. The comic rocks.

Source: Titan Comics