comixology:

A comiXologist Recommends A Comic That Brings Them Joy:
Jonah Chuang recommends Starlight

If you like comic book heroes and Pixar’s Up, this book is for you. Starlight made me tear up more than any book has in a long time. It’s the heartwarming story of Duke McQueen, the Flash Gordon/Adam Strange/John Carter-ish man from Earth who traveled to a distant planet and saved the universe, but has since come home, gotten married, had kids, and then aged forty years. Now his kids are grown, his wife has passed, and everyone thinks Duke is a crazy old man who imagined his ‘adventures’. Even his kids avoid him. All this changes, though, when a young visitor from the world Duke saved comes to ask for his help once again.

This is such an interesting and spin on the classic space adventurer story. These iconic heroes are the quintessential alpha males— cocky, strong, fast, proud, full of life, and steeped in glory and adoration— so you’d never think of them as old, sad, and lonely men, but that’s what happens to Duke in this story.

Goran Parlov’s artwork is so great for this book. It’s really grand and gorgeous, while being minimalistic enough to be reminiscent of the style of those old space stories. If you’ve read Fury MAX, you know what I’m talking about. Parlov really knows how to cast the stillness in the lonely moments, and bring out the pomp in the great fight scenes. There’s so much life to each image, you can almost hear the soundtrack playing over it.

Starlight’s a pretty great book for the holiday season. Assuming your holidays are anything like mine, there’s also very little snow, lots of family tension, and some really great emotional victories that make you tear up and feel like there are still great things in the world.

STARLIGHT!

[Read Starlight on comiXology]

Jonah Chuang is a Production Coordinator Assistant at comiXology and aspiring disciple of Mark Millar.