In our review of Red Roots #3, Sand and Kate both find themselves as part of The War, whether they’ve volunteered for it or not.
Red Roots #3
Writer: Lorenzo De Felici
Art and Main Cover: Lorenzo De Felici
Variant Covers: Declan Shalvey, Isabella Mazzanti
Page Count: 24 pages
Release Date: June 24, 2026
Red Roots #3 opens, the enemy’s well on their way, and Grit informs Sand that they’re on the same side, here. After a moment of consideration, Sand hands off the rope holding Kate to Grit. Both humans are immensely confused about their new situation, and Kate’s taken to the infirmary.
Sand has a lot of questions for Grit, but Grit’s more of a believer of showing rather than telling and takes him to The Pit, which is sort of an express-way to the battlefield. He hands Sand a weapon, and they face their enemy.
As she’s dropped at the infirmary, Kate meets Garza again. Who, upon learning of Kate’s nearsightedness, does something to her eyes.
On the battlefield, Sand is still very confused of what to make of this, to the point that Grit has to urge him to fight, too. He eventually joins in.
A couple hours later, Kate’s woken up to find that the place is now much more populated, and her eyesight’s now much clearer than she’s used to. And from there, she’s expected to help with the bodies. When she asks for answers, she actually gets a little information: namely that the flying creatures around deposit the bodies of those that have died or are close to it, and that they’re not just involved in a war, but The War.
One thing that’s abundantly clear after reading Red Roots #3: Grit’s home must be incredibly desperate for help if they’ve brought in human conscripts and given them precisely zero training beyond: “Alright, here’s a weapon, there’s your target, have at it”. Sure, it’s established that Sand was a hitman in life, but beyond the killing aspect, being a hitman and being a soldier are two entirely different animals.
Likewise, the only real overlap between Kate’s career as a school teacher and the new occupation of nurse that she’s found herself thrust into is that it involves taking care of others.
I do wonder if future installments will go into just how this war started in the first place. I’m still very curious about that aspect.
Also, Garza’s already established as being pretty cool, what with their healing tentacles. They were introduced in the last issue, but we see more of them here. It may have taken Kate a couple hours to fully recover, but she won’t have to pay for glasses again (probably). How many other teachers could claim to have been isekai’d and had their eyesight issues fixed? And what other sorts of ailments could those healing tentacles clear up?
It does seem that death isn’t a permanent thing in this world, given how casually it’s mentioned that Sand had died/was brought back.
Art-wise, there’s this lovely color contrast between the reddish hues of the battlefield and this world in general, and the more cool, green tones of the infirmary. It helps push the contrast between the paths both humans are set on: one’s sent out to end lives, the other kept there to help save them. And my personal favorite view of this is in the panel where Kate arrives at the infirmary, where we get an interior shot of it, with a glimpse of the red sky outside.
We don’t see all of the battle itself, but the glimpses we do get are dynamic and a bit chaotic. And Sand’s initial response at being tossed into it, complete with an enemy being thrown at him by a new ally, which helps snap him into kill-mode, feels quite fitting for the situation. That’s bound to throw anyone off, but Sand eventually finds his footing.
Now, would I like a few more answers? Oh, definitely, as this title keeps piquing my curiosity and giving me some answers, but not all. But does the mystery take away from my enjoyment? Not really, no.
Final Thoughts
Red Roots #3 continues this journey through an alien world, filled with war and violence. But still not a lot of answers, yet. It’s still weird as hell, and the artwork’s nicely done.
