Tony Stark’s Iron Man Drones are exceptional at their job, which is to provide security and keep unauthorized aircraft out of the sky. Unfortunately for the Hotshots, they’re considered an unauthorized aircraft. But are you really saving the world unless you run into a few unexpected setbacks? As the stakes climb and tensions build in Domino: Hotshots #3, Gail Simone keeps the team on their toes while David Baldeón and Michael Shelfer add their talents as the artists with Jim Charalampidis as the colorist and VC’s Clayton Cowles lettering.

The ship may not be up in the air but the fate of the team sure is, and what better time to reflect on your past and present then when you may not make it to the future? That’s exactly what Diamondback does as she tries to save Domino’s life and maybe her own.

Simone finally puts Diamondback in the spotlight and allows her character to grow and become less one dimensional. More of her history is revealed explaining some of the reasons she acts the way she does, and she starts to connect to team members outside of Domino and Outlaw. Domino also grows as a character becoming a more confident leader with a little nudging from Outlaw. It’s great that Diamondback is becoming less one-dimensional, but this feels like content that should’ve taken place at the beginning of the story, and this is the third issue of a five-issue run. With the Hotshots still figuring out how to work together, the story is starting to feel very slow and too drawn out.

In contrast to the pacing of the story, the art feels too rushed and chaotic. Pages are divided into too many panels so the eye doesn’t know where to look first. It cuts up the action making it feel choppy and disjointed. This seems to have been done in order to show the perspectives of multiple team members but it just didn’t play out well. In addition to making it extremely hard to follow the story, it takes away from the artwork itself because details are lost.

It’s unfortunate that issue 3 wasn’t up to par with the rest of the series so far but the remaining issues could really turn the series around, finishing it off strong.

Grade: C+