Dark Wing #3

Dark Wing #3

Heavy Metal Comics 2020

Created & Written by Matthew Medney

Illustrated by German Ponce

Coloured by Protobunker Studios

The Collective Experimental Living Life – commonly known as CELL, the planetary collective intelligence of the Quails – befriends a young student, Nela. Phoebe asks for Ben’s help, but it seems Pon also needs him in these mourning times for the Dark Wing crew.

This issue we see something I haven’t seen done before and that’s showcase the past of these folks while still maintaining a way to move the story forward. Both at the same time in one fell swoop it’s rather quite impressive to me and I doth my cap to Matthew for being able to do it seemingly without effort. While we haven’t yet come to realise why this planet is now a spaceship though we do know that in order to power the ship and the planet they need to harness the power of a sun. At this stage I like this because it is one way that keeps the reader engaged in the story as speculation can run wild within their minds.

I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The introduction of two new characters gives the character development to grow in some new and interesting ways. I know that the professor heard the girls question so that she turns to a CELL unit and we begin to see a lot new facets to the characters is really rather quite delightful. The pacing that we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it’s interesting to me how this society has grown and evolved.

The way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story both continue and emerge, thanks to the new characters, showcase how this mobile planet and its people are so incredibly complex and yet simple as it feels like they’ve lost something their forebears had. With how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow it’s easy to notice how this moves the story ever forward. It is also easy to notice that there is something special in Nela, which coincidentally the CELL notices as well.

The interiors here are fantastic, though c’mon could’ve seen Ben full frontal it wouldn’t have killed anyone. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques involved in bringing about the detail work makes what we see that much more astonishing. Look at the way the backgrounds are being done and how they work within the composition of the panels as they enhance the imagery as well as provide some nice depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a truly talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is out of this world. Yes i went there. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is mindbogglingly brilliant. From seeing space, to the CELL’s imagery to the regular folks how it’s laid down and how it enhances everything is beyond what I could’ve hoped to see.

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There is so much that we see and so much that we don’t see so that the interest and intrigue factors are high and the readers mind is engaged at such a level that it makes this more than a simple work of science fiction. We have no idea how long this journey has been going on and how much longer it will continue or if because of the planets new state of being if this is how their lives will be for generations to come and that alone is something to ponder. With intelligent writing and stellar interiors Heavy Metal keeps making their claim on the industry as a front runner for high quality storytelling.