Image Comics 2019
Created & Written by Jody Leheup
Created & Illustrated by Nathan Fox
Coloured by Moreno Dinisio
Lettered by Steve Wands
Still reeling from last issue's shocking fatality, the crew of the Disco Queen carry on their relentless pursuit of the hard drive containing Nathan's lost memory. But a pocket of elite resistance fighters stands in their way and force our heroes to make an excruciating choice—continue on their path to stop a second planet-destroying attack, or save the survivors of the first one.......
This shit is cray cray at best. Which of course is why we love it so. I like Nathan, the Weatherman, and I don't know if I want him to become Ian again. Though what I want, and seemingly what Nathan wants doesn't really play any kind of factor in this story at all. How we see the story & plot development and the character development in this book, series heck even franchise, is so well done and so integral to each other that when indistinguishable or individual they constantly grow and evolve. The pacing is amazing as well as it really picks things up and moves them constantly forward and brings us those moments that it otherwise wouldn't allow.
The characterisation is so interesting to me. That we see as much of it come from dialogue as it does from the visuals is the way to perfectly blend the two to create something larger than either one. Let us not forget that how they react to situations also says a lot about a persons character and if one does the same thing consistently then we'll find them favourable or despicable depending. This his how we find favourites and how we find the real villains here. I wonder what it says about me that my favourite characters are Nathan and Pace, not to forget Pickles.
At some point in this issue you will go off script. It is inevitable and for me it was thinking that perhaps Amy has forgotten what she's fighting for. She lost her man, she has no plan to get off Earth, she doesn't even know for sure if the memory stick can restore those memories and she's starting to make bad decisions so her cracks are showing. She might living on the edge but she's teetering on it precariously to the point one stiff breeze is going to send her crashing to canyon floor below.
I am enamoured with Nathan's work on the interiors here. There is something about seeing his creativity and imagination at work that really makes the horrific seem less so and more so at the same time. Regi for example is one of those moments as is seeing what is happening to those survivors. The linework is exquisite in bringing us the attention to detail here and to see things that are horrific and yet sympathetic at the same time isn't easy to do but they do it here and make it look easy. The backgrounds we see do wonders in enhancing the moment and bring us a size and scope that we need to really get a sense of what's happening. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stupendous eye for storytelling. The colour work is fantastic and every time we see Nathan's shirt and how throughout we see the consistency of it without linework to separate the colours that is impressive.
I like this book and because it is so different from what we expect. The guys really have created their own little niche in the science fiction genre that is filled with all kinds of people and scenarios that you would never think to see. This is like finding out there's a layer cake under the frosting and each layer is a different flavour as is the compote between them. It brings a happiness and joy that is guilt free and what's better than that?