Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, goran parlov, image comics, Mark Millar, starlight

With Starlight #4, Millar Comes Down To Earth (Gasp!)

Published Sun, 15 Jun 2014 17:00:00 -0500

By Abdulkareem Baba Aminu

So Mark Millar's Starlight #4 dropped last week and of course I bought it. I've been raving (and sometimes griping) about it since the first issue, but I didn't read the current one immediately. As much as I loved the comic's debut, subsequent installments were, to me…lukewarm. But I finally picked it up today and boy, am I glad I did!

Duke McQueen is a retired space adventurer who's being sought after by resistance forces from a planet he's saved before. A young lad ('Space Boy'!) is sent to pick our hero up and they end up in custody of nasty baddies. They also meet and befriend some oddball Elvis-wannabe-type guy who's really into Earth pop culture. Resistance soldiers, led by super-efficient hottie Tilda Starr, break them out in a cool chase scene, taking them back to base, located in the Kingdom of Wood Giants.

It's at this point that I realised that it's not just Millar on story who's back in form. Goran Parlov, whose art had waned in quality, has returned with a vengeance.

The world(s) are fully realized and even the delicious details in the art are back. The John Workman-esque lettering is also glorious, as is the lush coloring. All the visual goodness is enough to make you not notice the characterization coming together. Almost. McQueen gets more layered as a lead and even 'Space Boy' begins to take shape as an interesting supporting character. Heck, even our hero's wife – via flashback – gets more real.

And at the very end, Millar and co. drop an honest-to-goodness cliff-hanger on us, the kind that'll ensure readers come back for more. Starlight dishes out a perfect amount of space-adventure-comicbook fun and I'm glad I stuck around.

Starlight #4 is written by Mark Millar, with art by Goran Parlov, and is published by Image Comics.

Abdulkareem Baba Aminu is a BleedingCool contributor, newspaper editor, award-winning journalist, cartoonist, comic book creator, painter and poet. The Nigeria-based writer has reviewed comics, novels, movies and music for a variety of platforms. He is currently the Editor of the Saturday edition of the Daily Trust, one of the most influential newspapers in his country. You can follow him on Twitter @KareemReal

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