Skyman Issue 3
Creative Staff:
Story: Joshua Hale Fialkov
Pencils: Manuel Garcia
Inks: Bit
What They Say:
After a violent clash with his handlers, Skyman’s at odds with the agents of the program that created him—and now he needs to fight his way out of dangerous airspace into friendlier skies before things get worse! Knowing he can’t fly solo, the new hero seeks an alliance with a fellow patriot, but will he be greeted as friend or foe?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Skyman worked through some interesting stuff in the first couple of issues but it all brought about the main sticking point in a big way in that the whole program was just corrupt. You can see how it’s easily drawing on reality here in so many ways so seeing that a group like this, especially with the kind of people involved, would be hardcore in the way they’re presented makes sense. Some of it may feel a little over the top, but there’s that big nugget of truth in the middle that just makes you sigh and admit it. Much like Eric at different times in this issue as he grapples with what he’s seen, what it means and how to carry on even knowing that so much evil is being done in your name. It’s not an easy thing to live with and while Eric is admittedly in a position to do something about it, most people aren’t and he hasn’t quite grasped that he can do something. Which is good as it continues to make him somewhat more accessible and human.
His bolting from control obviously is going to have fallout on different levels and we see some of that here with Abernathy reluctantly admitting it’s time to put him down but also the way he uses Eric’s family in order to try and gain an edge after he flew the coop. He has a good sense of panic over what he’s done, but there’s also the way that he does say to himself that he knows he’s doing the right thing and says as much to his wife as well. The path he’s on now is not going to be an easy one but there’s that sense of rightness to it that has him accepting it as worth the risk, though naturally he doesn’t want his family impacted. And it’s a bit naive to think that Sharp and his ilk wouldn’t get to her so quickly considering how they are. But what’s both welcome and problematic is that within minutes of heading off on his own, he ends up running across someone else that’s powered up rather than a little more time handling things on his own.
Coming across Captain Midnight at that point isn’t the worst thing that can happen since he’s obviously quite connected to that technology. Their first meeting is amusing since Midnight simply wants to know if they’re going to fight, since he had some rough and tumble time with the last Skyman and he’s just sort of blase about it, resigned to fighting against the power that he was once a part of before he realized how corrupt it was. Things move a bit too quickly for my taste, but the two men do find a mutual understanding, a sort of birds of the same feather and all, and that gets Midnight to help him with his suit and unit. You have to laugh at the way that Midnight deals with it all since even though the tech has been worked on in the years since his disappearance, it’s still so below his basic level that it’s just beyond amateurish how it’s setup. That does make him sound bad in how he phrases things, but with him being on a whole other level, it’s not a surprising kind of dialogue style.
The two men do manage to have a bit of decent down time together, but not nearly enough for my taste. While it wants to get to the action, it doesn’t take enough time for them to really connect and talk more about things of some importance that might come up. Even a little simple bit about what they know, a kind of big picture view, could help connect them better. Their talk of good and evil definitely hits home well though and while it’s not indepth, it does put them on the same page and you can appreciate it as a way to move them forward right. That’s all prelude to the action, as we get Sharp and his crew figuring out where they went, and with plenty of general animosity for both Midnight and Skyman, it’s not a surprise it just goes into a fight. That’s just a portion of the end here as it shifts from fighter craft to Skyman suit oriented, but I definitely like that they got the whole multiple prototype corps kind of thing going to hunt them down, which will spill nicely into the next issue hopefully.
In Summary:
Skyman once again hits a decent bit of material here, but it still has this kind of mild haphazard feel where it has the opportunity to sink into some meatier dialogue but ends up being superficial instead. Yeah, I know, lengthy dialogue just clutters up the page and slows things down and I should just go read a book instead. But with the issues facing the two main men here, there’s an opportunity for a lot more to be said between them, especially in a mentor/student aspect since Eric is so properly deferential this this hero. It’s unfortunate that it’s missed, even in this kind of frenetic period where they’re being hunted. There’s still a lot going on and I’m enjoying the progress overall of Eric’s story and while Midnight wasn’t someone that I’d draw in just yet, it’s fairly well handled and has the right kind of connection to not feel like it’s forced.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 19th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99