Creative Staff:
Story: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Pencils: Manuel Garcia
Inks: Bit
What They Say:
Fighting for his life thousands of feet above the ground, Skyman faces off against the people who made him a hero—and if he fails, he falls! Literally! They tried to make the perfect weapon, but they got a hero instead. And Skyman intends to act like one, even if it costs him his life!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Skyman has had a pretty fun run so far with the first three issues of this four issue miniseries and with the concluding issue here, it sets things up to move forward in a pretty good way. A lot of the series has just been about the creation of the character of Skyman and as an origin story, it works pretty well since it wasn’t trying to be compressed inside of a single issue. We got a look at the character of Eric Reid pretty well in the opening with his past as an airmen, the fight over Kandahar and what the result of it was both physically and mentally. Putting him in a difficult position because of the loss of his legs is one thing, but like a lot of good heroes it’s all about what drives them internally. The loss of his men in that action and his feeling responsible for it has pushed him forward, though it ended up pushing him into working with a secret group of crazy redneck government types that are basically a half a shade away from white power supremacists looking to push their views into the world by force. All government sanctioned of course.
What’s worked better than I expected was the involvement of Captain Midnight, as I’m still not completely in his corner yet because of the way he’s been presented. Having Reid end up working alongside him for a bit definitely makes a lot of sense since so much of the original belt technology and concepts originated with him, and having both of them pushing back against this group of military men also clicks well since it just offends each of them in different but similar ways. While the two are relatively on the same page philosophically, they also manage to work together well in terms of fighting as they’re now facing off against this squadron of second tier Skymen that have come to get the belt back and completely beat down Reid along the way since they’re so offended by him on a couple of different levels. That leaves most of this book revolving around the fight, which has some good layouts to it and works well to show how Reid would use his knowledge as an airman himself to pull off a couple of good moves that clearly sets him out ahead of them, especially since he’s not fueled by anger but rather justice.
Though it covers the fight as a whole, the one that works the best is in having Reid go up against Sharp since the two have rubbed each other the wrong way from the start. For Reid, it’s about finally putting that behind him and showing Sharp that he’s better than him and willing to go the distance no matter the cost. There’s an easy out, which admittedly Reid doesn’t think about, but it’s nicely handled and in the end reaffirms the kind of bond that exists between Red and Captain Midnight. There’s an interesting camaraderie between the two that spans the generations as it feels like a kind of brotherhood that works right. The results of the fight are pretty decent, even if it’s a touch anticlimactic in a way, but the epilogue is what sets the stage for the character of Skyman himself – and his created villain as well with how things can go forward.
In Summary:
With most of this issue made up of the fight between the good guys and the bad guys, it works well in that regard since Manuel Garcia has some great double page layouts that are quite appropriate for characters involved in flight. You can’t really do a lot of close-up pieces since that makes it feel closed in and claustrophobic when it needs to feel wide open and alive. And Garcia’s pages definitely do that, particularly with the great color design that just draws you into the setting all the more. Skyman as a whole was a pretty good miniseries that reveals a good origin story for the titular character. We know his motivations, what makes him tick, his faults and failings and how he strives to overcome them. With a particularly unpleasant government group involved and a new psychopath who is about to find his world changed, there’s some solid things for Skyman to work against. And we see that he’s about to be put into that position well thanks to a little help from the still respected Captain Midnight. I like that they used Midnight in this form since it fits with Skyman’s origins and thankfully never felt like it was eclipsing the lead character, but rather providing for support. Hopefully we’ll see more of Skyman in the future – outside of Captain Midnight’s pages as well.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 16th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
