They can't all be winners.
Page 42
Given Dinner and a Robbery is only the second major Reckless Life arc there is quite a bit to like. This sequence is not one of those things. A lot of the creation of Reckless Life blurs together but I remember ESS-TEE-ARR-uggling with this fight and it shows.
Locke's little wrist computer thing is back in panel one and I do like the skewed edges of that "Samurai Jack eyes" panel in the upper right.
That guard is an homage to the big bruiser in Raiders who gets sucked into the plane's propeller in that he is both bald and built. This fight is supposed to have a similar flavor but totally does not.
20 years later I'm STILL bad at drawing hands and this bottom panel is a prime example. The foreshortening on Locke is all weird too. I got better at that over the course of the series but 2003 Tim is still working it out. I remember there being a lot of erasing happening on Locke here and you can tell because I resorted to the "jumping out of the shadows trick" I sometimes did (do) when I want to obscure something that's not turning out because I want to go to bed. (All of my drawing is STILL done by night.)
Page 43
I'm pretty sure this is the worst page in this comic. (Change my mind!) Not only is there too much red and the foreshortening and hands are once again not at all great but this fight has NO drama. Locke gets bopped on the back with a mag light and then BOOM he immediately turns the tables. If I had this one to do over again I not only would, you know, draw it well, but I'd have that guard knock Locke around a little so that when he DID turn the tables it had some impact. Instead this whole fight is:
On top of all that I'm not at all clear what Locke is reacting to in the middle panel. And this guy lets his guard completely down due to noise on his radio? Are we to believe that's Paige trying to distract him and help Locke out? We don't know because this whole sequence is just 2003 Tim deciding it was time for a fight sequence but not really committing to it. Clearly Locke was frustrated too and he magically developed pupil-less comic book eyes in the last panel. Yeesh. Let's move on.
Page 44
I Locke speaks for me too when he shakes off those last two pages.
Oh that's right! Locke has a hacker guy that we haven't seen since early in act 2! It's probably important that he's resurfacing all of the sudden!
Once again we find that Locke is always super shitty to Mort. This is obviously because everyone else is shitty to him. Locke is not very mature.
Here we are at the diamond vault. Feels like we might be closing in on the climax!
NEXT WEEK: WHAT'S BEHIND DOOR NUMBER ONE?!