Creative Staff:
Story: Christopher Cantwell
Art: Martin Morazzo
Colors: Miroslav Mrva
Letters: Clem Robbins
What They Say:
Luna’s relationship with Gary sparks a new internal fight: attempt to launch into normalcy, or keep excavating Mayura’s past? Bill is pressured to use the Flying Woman’s technology for evil . . . but he has other plans. Kido teaches her own version of what it means to fly. Will liftoff be a success—or will everyone crash and burn?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
She Could Fly has probably been one of the more frustrating series that I’ve read in the last few years. I liked a lot of the first series but disliked the way it felt like it ended sooner than it had planned, taking some unexpected turns too early. This second series has that feeling on overdrive as it’s barreling forward with more decisions that I’m not sure how they fit into anything at this point. Cantwell has a plan but I’m lost on this journey as to where it wants to go. I continue to like Morazzo’s artwork as there are some really fun takes on the script here and he captures the uncertainty, fear, and strangeness that Luna is going through well, especially with her expressions. So there’s some good stuff at play here, but it’s just not hanging together well for me in a big way.
Luna’s story here at least feels like it’s making progress. We see her and Gary out a lot and their time together has some nice moments, though talking in the movies makes me angry and spitting food in someone’s hair does not endear me to Luna. Gary letting her drive with the way she seems so disconnected from reality at times? Also not cool at all. Luna’s medicines are definitely taking her on some real trips here and Morazzao captures it really well with the kind of disconnected from everything feeling, the initial color shock overload, and then just the nonsensicality of it all. I do like that Luna is taking the approach of abandoning all of her meds since this is a very specific story but seeing her flush everything and the coming hard off it all happening soon just sends some weirdly conflicting messages.
Bill’s story is the only other one of note here as we see the Russians still trying to get him to fix the flying device. They’re being properly cruel, feeding him dog food so that he has something, but Bill does realize that his only choice is to fix the thing while trying to figure out what the other problem is with it that they’re having. We see him getting a few interesting clues along the way here but I like that we get to the whole trial run quickly with the flying tech and that it seems like everything is fixed. What becomes truly amusing is that his captors don’t realize that they’ve actually given him control of the machine, resulting in one awkward and bloody death – telegraphed plainly, of course – and then uses it for his own escape from this inhospitable place. It’s good to see Bill on the move but the whole subplot just hasn’t connected at all.
In Summary:
This second series for She Could Fly has felt a bit off the rails since the start. This one eases back into some more familiar storytelling but at the same time I’ve lost the plot so much I don’t know what the goals of the characters are anymore. I like Luna a lot and seeing how she’s dealing with all that she struggles with but there are some problematic messages sent here and she’s making dangerous choices. Bill’s story is just as dangers in a different way. I’m curious to see where his goes, as well as the results of the changes Luna is making, as there’s potential for something either interesting or utterly disastrous.
Grade: D
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 12th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99