Review: Skyward #4

Willa Fowler is the superhero that we need right now. She“s smart. She“s fly. And she can fly. Well, everyone can fly in the low-gravity world of Skyward, a brilliant new series from Image Comics. But Willa has aspirations beyond the sky-bound neighborhood in which she has grown up. She wants to see the world and she is particularly interested in what“s left of the old world on the ground. And it is this curiosity that animates the narrative of Skyward. Willa“s wonder about the world, her exploratory fervor, is in some ways her super power.

Joe Henderson writes, Lee Garbett draws, and Antonio Fabela colors the world of Skyward. It“s our world ”“ in a near and nearly dystopic future ”“ but without the all-powerful grounding force of gravity. “My Low-G Life”“ part four finds Willa frantically returning to her apartment in search of her father. Readers will want to be up to speed with the story at this point. “My Low-G life”“ part four reads well as a stand alone issue, but the best sense of the story requires that you start from the beginning. One of the best features of Skyward is the acute pacing of the story itself. It“s not that this story is fast-paced, necessarily; at times it floats ”“ literally and figuratively. Skyward winds through its narrative like a wizard navigates a magical labyrinth – mostly in the sky, sans gravity.

Willa“s relationship with her Dad is the core of this arc of the story and by issue number four their relationship begins to take center stage. In this issue readers will find out the real reason why Dad Fowler refuses to leave his apartment. His phobia for the gravity-less outdoors is tied directly to G-day, the cataclysmic event that informs the story world of Skyward. Sometimes the apocalypse brings out the best in our most beloved characters; sometimes it doesn“t.

Skyward earns the near universal praise that it receives. But one of the most attractive aspects of this story is the clarity of the storytelling itself. Garbett and Fabela“s visuals are always on point and each panel is particularly tailored to Henderson“s razor sharp script. No words wasted. Each panel is like a grasp for gravity in a world where the power of/over gravity is the rarest of resources. The absence of gravity isn“t exactly Skyward“s franchise. Instead the franchise of the series is grounded in an intricate study of what all can (and cannot) happen in a world where gravity is absent. 4.5/5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Joe Henderson (A/CA) Lee Garbett