In our review of Royals #3, the heist begins in earnest, but things get real complicated real quick, and the relationship between the two brothers reaches a breaking point.
Royals #3
Writer: Derek Kirk Kim
Art and Main Cover: Jacob Perez
Variant Covers: Jacob Perez, Derek Kirk Kim, Bryce Collins
Page Count: 40 pages
Release Date: 6/3/2026
This review contains spoilers
The twins wake up in a room, finding a handy-dandy pre-assembled heist kit and some instructions waiting for them. They have a bit of conflict over doing this, with Castor just wanting to get it out of the way and Paul worried about Minah’s safety.
They can’t just slip in, steal the Hammer, and slip right out. They need a safe combination, and for that, they need to wrench it out of Father Park. Paul comes up with a plan, but Castor’s not quite listening. Besides, going in at night might be easiest.
Of course, that night also happens to be bingo night and therefore quite crowded. At that point, Paul and Castor end up switching roles: Paul would get the pastor alone and Castor can go for the relic.
As Paul pulls Father Park aside to speak with him, Castor deals with the security guard. Paul tries to get the combination as painlessly as possible, telling the Father about his situation, but he wants to get the police involved. And so, Paul pulls a gun, gets the combination, and leaves him tied up in his office.
Castor gets the Hammer, but finds something else: the room that Minah’s being held in. Paul catches up to him, and immediately wants to free her, but then the two start to fight each other. During their fight, Father Park and the nun that’d freed him get caught in the crossfire, before Daeshim steps in and shoots both twins.
Issue three. Issue three of this story, and things just keep ramping and ramping up. I usually tend to be quite curious as to where a story will go after each installment, but it’s certainly the case, here. I mean, one of those shots in the last panel looked a LOT like a headshot. There are two issues left in this story.
How much crazier can things go from here?
Though I will say that I appreciate the way that they keep upping the ante in this title. There’s so much going on in the story, yet at the same time, there’s a difference between “intense and exciting” and “trying to do too much and failing”.
I’d say that Royals is a case of the former. The way that it keeps piling things on the characters feels like stuff that would organically go wrong, rather than a series of contrivances. Chances are, Daeshim knew it’d be a bingo night at the church…but didn’t tell the guys because he’s already established himself as rather awful. Issue two’s torture session proved that.
The fight scenes were, again, incredibly dynamic to watch. The one between Castor and the security guard was a fun one.
But the emotional highlight had to be the knock-down, drag-out brawl between the two brothers. All of that tension between the pair finally came to a head. It was already established that Paul was getting annoyed with his brother—how he seemed so flighty about everything and inattentive. How he was more focused on women than anything else. How he’d cost him more time with Minah. But at the same time, it’s also shown that Castor doesn’t do these things to be callous to his brother and is, in fact, looking out for him. Yes, he’s ordering room service while Paul’s trying to figure out a plan for the heist…but he’s making sure both of them are fed before they go on this dangerous job.
And it makes sense that in their fight with each other, it would be a third party that suffers the most. Paul already had enough guilt riding on his soul after all of the prior hustles with his brother, and getting a girl he liked dragged into this, and pulling a gun on someone that trusted him. But he’s the one that caused Father Park to get impaled (and that was a shot meant for his brother…it may have been a heat-of-the-moment attack, but that may come back to haunt him, as well).
The final panel is shown in silhouette, so we don’t necessarily see exactly where the bullets hit. Just the general area. If it wasn’t a fatal headshot in Castor’s case, I’m wondering if it’d deprive him of his telepathic bond with Paul. If it was…well, that would still remove that telepathic bond.
Final Thoughts
WHEW, that was quite a ride. Three issues in, and Royals keeps dealing out some crazy action.
