Last Flight Out #3

Last Flight Out #3

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Created & Written by Marc Guggenheim

Created & Illustrated by Eduardo Ferigato

Coloured by Natalie Marques

Lettered by Diego Sanches

The only way to survive is to abandon Earth! Ben Caewood's mission to save his daughter before the world ends has taken an unexpected turn when Ben finds out that the man she loves is being held captive in the most dangerous place left on Earth and threatens the already shaky "alliance" he's formed with the military.

The opening here is fantastic! We start off with some science talk and while it’s pretty basic stuff that we can all follow along to and yet it’s still talked about and that alone should be cause for celebration. So cheers, kudos and mazel-tov to Marc for including it within these pages I for one thank you. I am incredibly impressed with just the overall vibe, mood, tone and feel of this story. Mankind has destroyed the Earth as we know it and the Earth has finally had enough and there isn’t a way to fix what we’ve done and we have to flee to the stars and find a new home. It’s not a new story but that this is so intelligently done and doesn’t preach to, talk down to or talk at the reader but presents them with the facts and the only viable alternative at the moment is exceptionally well handled.

I love 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 exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the memo’s, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in featuring their ever changing and growing personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story does this strange dance and begins to change how we see and feel about the characters.

I’m impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers do a wonderful job in opening up new avenues to be explored and whether they are or not they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is immaculately achieved.

I am enjoying the interiors here. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work we’re seeing is sensationally rendered. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments does so beautifully. How they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is great to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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We all know the read to hell is paved with good intentions and while Ben’s been so busy trying to save the world he’s neglected his daughter in the process. Part of this is because he couldn’t properly process his grief over his wife’s death and I love how this aspect engages the reader so that we see between the lines and justify their actions towards one another. This really is intelligently written with some strong, dynamic characterisation and these really nice interiors bringing us a fantastic look at the state of the world they live in.