Review – Starlight #1 (Image)

Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Goran Parlov
Release Date: 5th March 2014

Well Mark Millar has seemingly done it again and knocked one of his own titles out of the park. That being said, going into the title I had reservations as I thought his trademark over-the-top (and at times shocking) style that often isn’t to my taste would continue. However, with Starlight, none of this was the case.

What you will find here can be described as Gran Torino meets Flash Gordon, as hard as that may is to picture. The opening issue finds the hero of the piece “Duke McQueen” dealing with the loss of his wife, the pressure of having grown-up children who take a Laissez-faire approach to family matters, as well as dealing with his own fast-approaching elder years. The book also features pages and panels throughout the issue showing his cosmic past.

So issue one gives you those weighty themes, well constructed characters and the cosmic hook progressing into further issues. Quite frankly, this leaves me excited about this series as it just seems so richly put together. You can definitely see the heart in the main character Duke.

The art within this book is also on top form as Parlov strikes the perfect balance between the fantastical elements and the more grounded modern day Earth settings. The alien landscapes look appealing, for example, and even the palette selected by colorist Ive Svorcina make this feel like a superior book as the ‘past’ scenes are vibrant and fantastic with the ‘present day’ appearing more muted and grey.

So to recap, you have a rich story deep in weighty themes about a man of two worlds. This is definitely a non-“Big Two” title that everyone should get on board with because it is definitely one of the stronger new series to hit shelves in recent times.

Rating: 5/5.

The writer of this piece was:
GARYav