It’s not easy doing the right thing.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Horton
Art: Stephen Thompson
Colors: Lisa Jackson
Letters: Neil Uyetake
What They Say:
It’s life or death for Lilly as the sting operation she never wanted goes horribly wrong. What’s a taxi driver-slash-bounty hunter to do? Steal a car, of course!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of Satellite Falling was the kind of work that left me curious to see where it would go and what it would do. While I have a preference for science fiction material in a general sense, it’s the kind of field where I either want it to do something really unique and outlandishly new or I want it to just work the familiar in a strong way. This book is doing the former, which is doubly well done because of what Stephen Thompson brings to it in the layouts and design to give this place a feeling of its own. Horton has a lot of world building that can be done here as there are tantalizing routes to go, but right now it’s more character focused and that works perfectly well. But I’ll admit I’m hoping for it to dig into the strange and unique aspects of this place in a clearer and more interesting way as it progresses.
Lilly’s central role is definitely the big positive here as we get a familiar character that has the added bonus of being the only human on Satellite, which really has me wanting a richer exploration of why nobody else would come here. It’s just such a stark piece that it demands a real explanation. But her unique position here is what makes her fun to watch because of how she interacts with people and works her own sense of justice. With the police having brought her in for this sting operation, it really shouldn’t have been a surprise that it went down as it did with her involved. Instead of the buy going on and then the raid, she reached her limit upon seeing the conditions of the slaves inside and makes her move to bust up the place. But it’s within this we see that she has a certain code she lives by as well, as she’ll kill those that choose to try and kill her, but she won’t go after unarmed people. It’s a gray distinction when you really get down to it but it reinforces her character more.
The fight and flight from the factory is solid as Thompson delivers well here with the hologram tech and the limitations Lilly has with it, but the story makes me cringe just a touch with the addition of the child Joulya for Lilly to escape with. Never work with kids or animals! Joulya manages to work out well overall as we get the whole (flying) car chase sequence aspect and it channels some of the best elements of the Fifth Element here with how it unfolds. Chases are damn hard to do in comics because you really have to nail the flow of the panels and drive the energy home through both facial expressions and the vehicles themselves but also through the dialogue. Horton and Thompson are on the mark with this and it puts the book in a fast read for the first time but with more than enough details in the design to very much warrant a second and slower look at the artwork afterward.
While the book is a solid and quick read for most of it, the slowdown at the end is worthwhile as we get the nod toward the bigger picture and why Lilly was brought into it. Though we get the mildly awkward bit with the relationship she has with the Chief, he does reveal that there’s a central force behind what this organization was doing and is tying together a lot of other things to really cause trouble across Satellite. That it’s her supposedly dead girlfriend Eva from Earth? Well, points to Horton for not dragging that out for a few issues and bringing it up so quickly. The truth of the matter remains to be seen as Lilly believes it can’t be real and that the person doing this will pay, but I like having the uncertainty of what’s going on here rather than several issues of wondering who the big bad and then discovering it while knowing all along that it was pretty likely to be Eva based on the character’s central importance in the first issue. It’s giving the readers a bit of solid respect to go this route.
In Summary:
The second installment of Satellite Falling keeps the momentum moving forward pretty well as there’s a good bit of energy in here. Chase material is always a little dicey but Horton and Thompson bring it together well here to keep it going while revealing a little bit more about Lilly. The bigger picture for the opening arc is coming into focus more here as well and I’m curious to see what direction they’ll take with it since it can go any number of ways, one of the beautiful things about science fiction. I’m enjoying the book and what it’s presenting and hoping that it’ll start digging a little deeper as it goes on and the comfort and familiarity level with the world that they’re creating goes up.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 1st, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
