Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
SilverHawks #1
Writer: Ed Brisson
Artist: George Kambadais
Color Artist: Ellie Wright
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Editor: Nate Cosby
Okay, here's the part where I admit that I am not familiar with the titular SilverHawks.
While they were definitely a part of my friends' childhoods, they weren't a part of mine. Either the show was on at a time when I wasn't watching TV, or it wasn't on in my area, or was just airing opposite something else I wanted to see. I missed out on SilverHawks. I remember shiny action figures when I went to play dates with friends, and the name "Bluegrass" stands out because hahaha grass isn't blue, silly, it's green. But I know nothing about the show or the characters or their doings.
This makes it an interesting book for me to review, since a lot of Dynamite's retro output is geared specifically for people of my age who fondly remember the mid-'80s and want to see the further adventures of its heroes. They have Thundercats going, and Ducktales. Space Ghost too, if you're a little older. (While the original Space Ghost and Dino Boy ran in 1966, he came back with the original voice actor in 1981 for Space Stars) But hey, I thought the story propelling SilverHawks was pretty good, even if I was totally lost at the end.
The place? Space. The time? The future. Crime in Bedlama City is so low that the SilverHawks, the mechanized crime fighting force that has all but replaced the beat cops, are mobilizing to stop petty crimes like purse counterfeiting. In fact, things are so peaceful that the entire SilverHawks policing program is set to shut down after the retirement of their leader, Stargazer.
But after 100 years of things progressively getting better, they suddenly all go to hell. Mon*Star, the big bad from the TV show, breaks out of prison thanks to his henchman Mo-Lec-U-Lar. The prison empties out and 100 years of villainy burst back onto the scene. Once the soon-to-be-retired B-team SilverHawks are ambushed in a warehouse due to a bad tip, the original group finds they need to get back in action, no matter how old and infirm they now are.
And despite not having its nostalgia factor working in my favor, I quite liked the story this comic tells. It reminds me of '80s Dark Horse output, that kind of futuristic robotic sci-fi crime stuff they were cranking out. 1989's Clonezone Special was the first indie comic I ever read that wasn't Disney. If anything, the SilverHawks in their garish shiny suits were distracting – if you had just told me these were just old cops who needed to get back on the force for one more case, it would have done the trick.
Writer Ed Brisson had me caring so much about the set up, that the characters were secondary.
The story is engaging, but the art let me down. After seeing multiple covers done by talents like Jae Lee and Lucio Parrillo, George Kambadais's interiors felt flat and chunky. Faces look the same, backgrounds aren't filled in, and everyone's shoulders are enormous compared to their waists (everyone's built like the old Batman: The Animated Series Batman). There are definite high points and ambitious layouts, but I was disappointed that the big, sweeping action climax was copied and pasted as a half-splash just two pages later.
Still, the story was enjoyable, and if you're a sucker for futuristic cop dramas, à la Blade Runner, this one's definitely up your tree. Big prison break? Past-their-prime cops who are the only ones who can train the new recruits? Monster people? Those make for a good story. But I wasn't one of the people who caught SilverHawks for the four months it aired in 1986 or the two years of Cartoon Network reruns 24 years ago, so I don't have the same enthusiasm as those who have waited for a new comic series since 1987's Marvel mini-series.
That's why the ending disappointed me so much. From the satisfying rallying of the "back for one last job" old SilverHawks team, we're taken to a laboratory in a place that is not named, featuring people we have not been introduced to before (who are also not named), and introduced to the SilverHawk who I think has been our narrator the whole time? He's also not identified, but he's revealed as someone we should already know, which is difficult to achieve since everyone's face looks the same and lots of people are already dressed like silver birds.
I'm curious who he is, but not curious enough to find out in the next issue.
Big Jailbreak: 4/5
Fun: 2/5
Silver: Actually blue-gray
Ages: It is implied that everyone is over 100 years old
Verdict: I really really wanted to like this and give Dynamite the benefit of the doubt (I'm enjoying their retro Ducktales and Zootopia books), but the book's not crossing the finish line for me.
