Rating: 4.5/5 – Life on The Dawn in the not-so-friendly skies.
Wild Blue Yonder has been one of the more unique and exciting mini-series on the shelf since its debut several months ago. I was very impressed with issue #1 (my review of that issue can be found here) and enjoyed the world that had been built around The Dawn and its protectors.
Coming off the huge reveal at the end of issue two, the story could have gone in a lot of different directions but the creative team focused solely on The Dawn and relationships between characters in this issue. That is not to say the issue is dialogue heavy or light on the action, quite the opposite actually. The creative team of Mike Raicht (story and writer), Zach Howard (story and art), Austin Harrison (story), Nelson Daniel (colors) and Thompson Knox (lettering) do a great job of providing enough information and backstory on these characters to give them depth and dimension; at the same time putting them in situations that test their resolve and by doing so, add an extra level of tension to the book.
Wild Blue Yonder #3 begins with Scram giving Tug a lesson on handling himself up on the sky. This lesson proves timely as the team is pushed to the limits when The Dawn comes under attack. With the backdrop of the dystopian world around them and death a possibility at any moment, the creative team weaves just the right amount of light hearted moments into the story. Scram’s reaction to Tug after the lesson ended was a laugh out loud moment in addition to being a beautifully drawn panel.
That specific panel is a great segue to the all-star of the book – the art. Zach Howard and Nelson Daniel are knocking it out of the park on Wild Blue Yonder. Each issue has a panel or page that stops you in your tracks and this issue’s moment comes right in the middle with an absolutely stunning two page spread of Tug and Cola enjoying a quiet moment together. These characters are drawn so gritty you can almost smell the gasoline and dirt emanating off of them and the perspectives on some of the panels lend to the chaotic nature of Scram and Tug’s jobs and pace the action nicely.
When the chaos ends, there is always the family aboard The Dawn to return home to. One could make an argument that it’s this family ideal, in a world where so much has gone wrong, that each member of The Dawn fights with their lives to protect and not necessarily the ship itself. At the halfway point of the mini-series, Wild Blue Yonder continues to deliver an entertaining story that separates itself from the other comics on the shelves in both substance and quality. Howard and Daniel’s art should not be missed and pushes an already excellent book to new heights.
Reviewed by: Jeff Bouchard – jeff@comicspectrum.com
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