Fantasy Sports No. 3
By Sam Bosma
Review by Stephanie Cooke
The lastest volume of Sam Bosma’s series Fantasy Sports is here and this time, the focus sport here is golf… specifically mini golf.
Things pick up once again not long after the end of No. 2 after Wiz and Mug are sent to find out more about what the Champions in No. 2 claimed about the Archmage. Are their lives and careers all a lie?
After being sent off on a ginormous water turtle, Wiz and Mug arrive at yet another place where the Archmage and the Order of the Mage are hated and feared. Mug is taken away while Wiz is left to deal with the fallout and figure out how to get them out of the situation. As mentioned, the focus sport here is mini golf so that’s what Wiz has to play in order to make everything right again.
Like the previous two volumes, No. 3 deals with wonderful themes of finding yourself and bettering yourself and more. Wiz has to take much information about the order that she belongs to and figure out if she will ignore those facts and stay on mission or stand up against those who would oppress simple folk trying to get by.
I really love how the story is written in so many ways. Like some of my favourite books such as the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat, the characters within Fantasy Sports aren’t solely about beating things up and hoping that gets the job done. Many of the “villains” of the story here turn out to not really be villains which the characters find out by talking to them and listening. They use their judgment to weigh what is being said and figure out what’s right and what’s wrong.
There’s also a really fun little subplot here involving WWE style wrestling matches that really added to the story giving us some back story for Mug as opposed to the last volume where we got a little bit more of a glimpse at Wiz’s early life.
Like with the previous two volumes, Sam Bosma’s art is amazing and filled with beautiful backgrounds and fantastical characters for the story. It’s a genuine treat to even just look through the book and take in the art that’s there.
Fantasy Sports is such a feel good book. While the subject matter isn’t always solely “cheerful”, there’s this whole atmosphere of hope that Wiz and Mug will get to the bottom of what’s going on and work together to bring about positive change in the world that they live in. The journey has been such an adventure to be a part of and I genuinely love the characters and reading about what’s next for them. There are plenty of great indie and small press books out there, but few are as beautiful and as fully realized as Fantasy Sports.
Verdict:
Buy it! The other two volumes have been absolutely wonderful and No. 3 is no different. This is the second last book in the Fantasy Sports series with No. 4 wrapping up everything that’s happened so far. I can’t imagine the whole story ending so soon but I can’t wait to see where everything leads to and what Bosma has in store for Wiz and Mug.
