STARLIGHT / MOON KNIGHT / WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN [Reviews]: Stars, Moon and Snikts.

Another week has passed and to all of your hearts content, the Sunday Stash is here! For this being my first SS, I thought of something new. Most articles you read from The Apostle typically come from me being holed up in hotels and random cities. Traveling man I am, let’s broaden our horizons and include new brethren into our congregation: Local Comic Shops. This week’s LCS proudly resides the snow-capped city of Minneapolis, home of the Vikings — and, boy, could this city give those pesky Ice Giants a run for their snow in Jotunheim. Through Polar Vortex’ and streets of ice, I braved a trek to the number one comic store here in the Minne, Big Brain Comics, and procured three epic tales full of swords, claws and white dressed looney toons!

All worthy of a read dressed in my Sunday Best.

-Moon Knight #1
-Wolverine & The X-Men #1
-Evil Empire #1
-Quantum & Woody: The Goat #0

STARLIGHT #1

Who remembers the classic cult movie Flesh Gordon…. I mean Flash Gordon? The epic small town boy saves the universe from the evil despot Ming the Merciless and his sex ray. Or something like that. But what happened next? What happened to our fearless warrior once he returned back to earth? Was he heralded as the savior or disgraced as a loon with dreams of little green aliens?

I hear a Linda Scott remake already.

This is the premise behind Starlight, a new Image Comics series by Kick-Ass scribe Mark Millar that strives to answer all these questions and more. When earthling Duke McQueen saved the planet of Tantalus from the dictator Typhon, little did he ever expect to come home and be branded crazy. All Steve ever wanted was a peaceful American dream with his high school sweetheart.

Sadly, dreams don’t always end up the way we want. After years of being the butt of many jokes and, worse, the death of his wife, Duke has hit rock bottom. Through flashbacks of his younger self on Tantalas, you can tell Duke deeply needs something in his life to show meaning… then something happens.

The premise is there, even if a bit overused. Having been a fan of Millar’s work since before he “sold his soul” to Hollywoodland, I can appreciate where he’s going with this story. Unfortunately — even though I enjoyed this first issue and am a big fan of Goran (Punisher MAX) Parlov’s simple but elegant pencil work — I was still left wanting more from this first ish.

Too many comics lately have been using their #1’s to “set things up” rather than bust right through the gate, oftentimes leaving many readers on the pull-box fence. Unfortunately, Starlight is no exception.

Folks, there’s no doubt that Millar is an accomplished writer who has proved time and time again that he can weave a telling tale, even if his detractors just assume the guy is just trying to pitch his latest Hollywood deal. Which, in the case of Starlight, he did. Two months ago, it was reported that FOX will pick up the feature film adaptation rights of the comic, despite the underperformance of Kick-Ass 2 at the B.O.

Here’s to hoping that plot is far more palpable than this one.

3 (out of 5) Bibles.

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