Clue (comic)/Issue 3

The third issue of *Clue* was published on 9 August 2017.

## Synopsis

As rain continues to fall over New England, Detective Amarillo is horrified to discover the body of her partner, Detective Ochre, killed by an unknown assailant in Mr. Boddy's study. Roping in Upton to help her, Amarillo checks on all the guests: Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard and Mr. Green in their rooms, Senator White barricaded into hers, and the empty rooms of Professor Plum and Dr. Orchid. Green objects to being kept in his room by Amarillo, but the detective has no patience for his antics after her friend's death, and - after an offer of assistance from Colonel Mustard - manages to get the smug executive back into his room.

Upton informs Amarillo that Plum and Orchid are missing, something that the Colonel is unsurprised by, as he remembers the events in Afghanistan, 10 years earlier... Something that Upton objects to, disapproving of the flashback as a storytelling device, particularly when introduced in *issue three*. The editor, Carlos Guzman, argues that the flashback is a valid storytelling choice that fits the comic's aesthetic, but Upton disagrees, and doesn't believe that the Colonel's army days are even relevant to the story; eventually, though, he backs down when Guzman indicates that he *really* wouldn't enjoy an extended debate on the matter.

10 years prior, in Afghanistan, Mustard and another soldier walk through a field of flowers, the private reminiscing about "the good old days" when a soldier's job was just to kill "bad guys"; something that Mustard is quick to remind him only ever happened in movies. He observes that the field they're in doesn't contain just any flowers; they are Surobi zinnias, flowers that the Colonel believes to be "a miracle". But that night, the fields are raided by mercenaries seeking to capture the flowers, who shoot Mustard's soldiers dead and flee with their bounty, leaving the Colonel to reflect that he never should have believed in miracles.

In the mansion's greenhouse, Professor Plum begins to panic over the fact that he assaulted an officer and is trapped by the flooded river. Unable to calm Plum down, Dr. Orchid is forced to slap some sense back into him; as the two ponder their next move, Plum admits that he thought that Orchid was the murderer, but his explanation of his reasoning is interrupted when Detective Amarillo comes into the greenhouse to apprehend the two. Orchid and Plum run, and on reaching the river that surrounds the house, manage to escape from Amarillo by jumping into the water.

Back inside the house, the now-unsupervised Mr. Green sneaks out of his room to (poorly) flirt with Miss Scarlett. Though he's unfazed by Scarlett's rejection of his advances, his priorities change on seeing the flower in her hair; though Scarlett kicks him below the belt when he tries to take it, he scrambles out of her room with a handful of the flowers taken from her vase. Green knocks on Senator White's door, but she is unwilling to appease him until he tells her what he's discovered: Boddy has the Surobi zinnia! This jolts Senator White into action, pulling apart the makeshift barricade of furniture that she's built in order to see the precious flowers.

Orchid and Plum wash up on the side of the island once more. As Orchid helps Plum out of the river, she explains what's going on: Senator White is pushing to deregulate research on the Surobi zinnia, which would allow the private market—specifically, people like Mr. Green—full control of all the "miracle drugs" produced from it. Plum is horrified, but Orchid is determined that they work together, beat White and Green, and survive.

Inside the house, Upton has his doubts about Orchid's insistence that the two will survive, even if he admires their spirit. As he notes to the reader, issue 3 of *Clue* is the first to not contain the deaths of any of the characters... indeed, it is the *opposite*: on the floor of the library, the supposedly-dead Mr. Boddy gets up! Having been drugged with prattotoxin to make himself seem dead, Boddy asks his faithful butler how "the plan" is coming along; and, on discovering that not all the guests still live, a grin spreads across his face...