Review: SKYWARD #14
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer:Â Joe Henderson
Artists:Â Lee Garbett and Antonio Fabela
Colors: Antonio Fabela
Letters: Simon Bowland
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
“Mommy…Look! Butterflies!” – a child looking at the sky in Skyward.
One day, gravity on earth suddenly became a fraction of what it is now. Twenty years later, humanity has adapted to its new low-gravity reality. And to Willa Fowler, a woman born just after G-day, it’s a pretty awesome adventure. You can fly through the air! But you can also die if you jump too high. But in the preceding issues, she has stumbled into a dangerous plan to bring gravity back that could get her killed. Skyward is an adventure-filled exploration of our world turned upside down and a young woman’s journey to find her place in it.
Skyward is a political thriller in that gravity (either restored to the people or altered) is power. And the new normal is having a fraction of the Earth’s gravity on. And as we find out in this issue , there is no real way to fix this problem/opportunity. Prior issues of Skyward have been all about the race to find out how to restore gravity, but this issue seems to resolve that this is not the real problem.
Willa finds her mom and is flying back to Chicago to try to protect it from the Farmer’s revolt. And they are on butterflies…oversized butterflies… and they look brutal!
Can Willa and her friends save the city? And can this new normal exist without a quest to get gravity back? Let’s hope so!
Positives
I am perturbed that I have not discovered this comic sooner. What a great premise in turning off gravity? And what a great power for industry and government to have, take over, and use for good or evil? This playground of Joe Henderson’s is full of possiblities.
The Butterfly Farmers (my term, not Henderson’s) apply gravity by turning overriding Chicago’s systems. However, Willa overrides their plan and turns it back on so the war is nullified.
You have to admire anyone gong to war riding a butterfly! Great job Lee Garbett and Antonio Fabela. This is not your normal tale and you draw it beautifully!
Negatives
Just jumping into a title seems unfair to apply any negatives. I have pieced the story together, but I am delving into issues 1-13 to get a better grasp of the story. However, Willa sees in line with some new heroines that we are seeing across the board in all comic titles. I’m looking forward to see where she goes now!
Verdict
This comic is pretty awesome and I had to go back and read the premise of the entire comic to ‘get’ what has been going on to this point. But taking away gravity from the Earth…what a great concept to build on and what a great comic playground to work with! It was worth exploring back and let’s hope you add Skyward to your books to read as it is really easy to look past a lot of different comics these days based on cover art or a thumb through. Slow your roll and buy these issues at your local comic store. It’s rare to find something new and get the “Ahhh…why didn’t I think of that?” moment!
