The Pull List: StarLight

Mark Millar, the name carries with it a great deal of weight.  The man has rabid fans as well as rabid detractors due to the content of his stories.  So before we continue, I’ll say I enjoy most of Millar’s work, but not all of it.  I enjoy the Kick-Ass movies more than the books.  I don’t like Wanted or Old Man Logan, and I’ve never read The King’s Man.  What I respect the most about Millar is he seems to carry a genuine affection for comics, and is willing to experiment within the genre tropes.

Three issues into Starlight all the elements I like from Millar are present, without any of the excesses I feel often bog down his ideas.  Starlight follows Duke McQueen (A man whose name defines the archetype Millar is choosing to explore) an air force pilot, who inexplicably finds himself on an alien world and becomes the savior of the plant before returning home.   This is just the back story, Starlight #1 picks up shortly after the death of Duke’s wife Joanne.  After Duke returned from disappearance, his story was mocked and ridiculed as any such amazing story would be, and Duke becomes a joke even to his own kids.  It was only Joanne who believed him and now she is gone leaving Duke truly alone.

When a refugee from Tantalus arrives seeking Duke’s help he returns to the Tantalus to discover the planet is worse off than before he arrived, and questions his own role of Planetary hero.

The juxtaposition between hero and has been, is what makes StarLight great.  Duke McQueen is a terrific character, a truly noble heroic man whose greatest accomplishment is openly mocked for his entire life.  The first issue encapsulates who McQueen was, and who he is now.  This contrast continues when he returns to Tantalus to see statues of himself, after being mocked on his own planet.

Goran Parlov’s art is perfectly suited to this story and the way he draws McQueen’s face shows the weary life he has lived, but keeps his eyes full of energy.  His handling of action sequences allows readers to follow each movement and blow.  The paneling is simple, yet effective, and the colors by Ive Svorcina capture the feel of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.

StarLight takes a familiar concept and archetypes and moves them through a different lens.  If you want an space opera and self-reflection in a high energy fast moving tale pick up this book.