Rating: 4/5 – What if you had a space adventure and nobody believed you?
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.
I really enjoyed this issue. Solidly in the tradition of Flash Gordon and John Carter, the setup is not revolutionary. Air Force Captain Duke McQueen’s plane somehow end up traveling to an alien world where he has all kind of daring adventures. THIS is the stuff of Gordon and Carter. What we get in Starlight is what happens after.
Duke goes home to his girl. His life goes on. Years pass, he raises a family, and oh by the way, people generally don’t believe his stories of visiting alien worlds. Mark Millar blends scenes from a number of different time periods in McQueen’s life to introduce us to the worlds, the characters, and set up what will be the ongoing story. The moments he chooses, the character interactions, the dialogue, it all has a lot of heart and has me feeling like I know who Duke McQueen is…and I like him. This is the core thing he needed to do in this issue, making me want to read more about this character. Mission accomplished.
Goran Parlov’s art is a great counterpoint to Millar’s story and is beautiful in its own right, from the spectacular to the mundane, Parlov made it all feel just right. There were 2 covers to this issue, one by the popular John Cassaday and one by Parlov, I have Parlov’s cover, I really enjoy having the interior artist doing the cover also, it puts it right out there: what you see here is what you’re getting inside.
Millar has set up another intriguing story for us here, reliant on the protagonist Duke McQueen, if you like the heart and soul displayed by this man in this issue as much as I did then you’ll want to see what happens to him as he embarks on the story that will really launch in issue #2. I’m coming back for more.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
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