“Future in Peril”
Creative Staff:
Story: Christopher Cantwell
Art: Adam Gorham
Colors: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
Sam spirals deeper into darkness while the Blue Flame chooses to finally face the tragedy of his life on Earth. It remains to be seen if either of them will ever recover, and if they can still be heroes. As they grapple with their identities, Sam searches his soul and seeks relief in the arms of someone who may in fact be an adversary, while the Flame finds an ally in someone he thought was working against him.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While the back and forth nature of the series hasn’t flowed as well as I would have liked throughout, this issue included, I do like what we’re getting overall. I keep wanting to get to the meat of things when it comes to the trial and we get closer to it here, but not quite, which is frustrating. Cantwell knows what he’s doing through and definitely keeps you coming back for more with each tease. Adam Gorham made a lot of it really fun as well, with the creativity of the outer space sequences with all that we encounter there, to the more humdrum mundane material of Sam, but especially his time with the therapist this time around that really works well. The expressiveness of the cast is what’s key in this installment, however, and Gorham delivers on that quite well.
Watching how Sam works through everything that has gone on in the past is a familiar storyline, though I think Cantwell has managed to hit the bottom level for Sam in a good way here where he’s just so done with everything. There’s a point where he’s called out for calling death a release and a relief, a good thing, but it’s not unsurprising considering what he’s been through and the losses that he had. He has a really good conversation with his sister that resonates well as he tries to get her to think about how to tell her daughter in the future about him and their parents, but she has her own dark way of countering him that works. At the same time, we see him getting serious about trying to fix things as he’s starting to have a breakthrough and the time with the therapist, while unethical, works in its own way. I really like the way the scene plays out because it’s been built up so well there and Gorham’s artwork sells the eroticism in a really good way.
The trial storyline, I admit, is still very frustrating. Sam’s finally given in there to the responsibility being thrust on him and is intent on doing it right and well, leading him to some small investigative time before things get really serious. But the thing takes a bit of a detour when, while in costume, he hears about a ship about to crash and dashes off to help the two pilots inside. It’s against all the rules and while they do adjust things to allow him to do it, it just cements further that downside to humanity by doing things that they shouldn’t when told not to. There are positives from those directly involved but it paints the picture of society vs the individual in what needs to be done. The whole situation forces the trial to start even more quickly, with his deed serving as evidence, and it shows the first blush look at the differences in how this society looks at things compared to humanity.
In Summary:
Though there are elements to the book that frustrates me, the big picture aspects continue to deliver well and I really like the character work that we’re getting here. Admittedly, I’d rather see a more chronologically told story in a sense to work through what Sam is experiencing but the back and forth works well enough. I’m really curious to see how far we’ll go in defining this alien society and contrasting it to humanity in all its variety as well. Gorham continues to put in some great work here that capture a lot of emotion from his characters but also gives us some great settings to feel immersed in. It’s definitely building well across the board.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: August 25th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
