Skyman Volume 1: The Right Stuff

Dark Horse Heroes

by Joshua Hale Fialkov, Manuel García (Illustrations), Bit (Illustrations)

After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Captain Midnight, a drunken Skyman accidentally kills an innocent man! Turns out he's not only an overly patriotic zealot; he's also a dangerous PR nightmare. Needing a new face for their initiative ASAP, the Skyman Program turns to US Air Force Sgt. Eric Reid: a wounded veteran on the ropes, looking for a new lease on life. But the new Skyman is nobody's stooge. They tried to make the perfect weapon, but they got a hero instead. Joshua Hale Fialkov is a writer of the Emmy-nominated animated film Afro Samurai: Resurrection and the Eisner-nominated Tumor. 

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 2014

About the author

Joshua Hale Fialkov is the creator (or co-creator, depending) of graphic novels, including the Harvey Nominated Elk’s Run, the Harvey and Eisner nominated Tumor, Punks the Comic, and the Harvey Nominated Echoes.

He has written Alibi and Cyblade for Top Cow, Superman/Batman for DC Comics, Rampaging Wolverine for Marvel, and Friday the 13th for Wildstorm. He’s writing the DC relaunch of I,Vampire, as well as debuting the new Marvel character The Monkey King. This fall sees the launch of The Last of the Greats from Image Comics with artist Brent Peeples.

He also served as a writer on the Emmy Award Nominated animated film Afro Samurai: Resurrection, and as Executive Producer of the cult hit LG15: The Resistance web series.

Elk’s Run, Tumor, and Alibi are all currently in development as feature films. He has written comics for companies including Marvel, Wildstorm, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, Tor Books, Seven Seas Entertainment, Del Rey, Random House, Dabel Brothers Productions, and St. Martin’s Press. He has done video game work for THQ, Midway Entertainment, and Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink Productions. He also wrote a Sci-Fi Channel movie starring Isabella Rossellini and Judd Nelson. Unfortunately, at no point in the film does Judd Nelson punch the sky and freeze frame. Joshua grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, went to college in Boston, where he got a BFA in writing and directing for the stage and screen, and then worked in the New England film industry, until finally deciding to move to Los Angeles to do it properly. He lives with his wife, Christina, daughter, Gable, and their cats, Smokey and the Bandit.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/joshfialkov

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joshuahalefia...

Photograph by Heidi Ryder Photography

Reviews

[Chad]

A very solid miniseries. This spins out of Captain Midnight. The previous Skyman has been exposed as a redneck psychopath in the government's employ. Now they need a new Skyman to fix their image. Enter a disabled vet as the front man stooge for the program. Read to see what happens when he finds out what's really going on.

[47Time]

This action-packed comic is just what I needed: witty dialogue; beautiful, dynamic artwork; believable heroes and villains with flaws like ego and an exagerrated sense of patriotism. It was difficult to put down and the only thing I can complain is that it's over so soon. Too often you get a secondary arc (this one is a spin-off from Captain Midnight) that is unenjoyable and feels like a money grab. Here you have a comic that feels alive and draws you into its imperfect, entirely human world from the first page.

Skyman has flipped out after failing a mission where Captain Midnight stepped in to fix everything and they duked it out. After assaulting a barkeep, he reveals to the media that he has undergone assassination missions for the US goverment. The government needs a replacement for the Skyman program and sergeant Eric Reid, a veteran going through rehabilitation from war wounds, may be the man for it.

After being kidnapped from his home, he gets thrown right into training with the Skyman suit which gives him increased strength and resistance, better reflexes and even heals his injury while it's active. His handler is lieutenant Sharp, an expert in the suit, but 'just the wrong color,' because Skyman is supposed to be the poster boy for the project. This creates a strained relationship between the two from the start. It gets worse when Sharp uses the suit for an assassination mission where innocents also get killed before Reid can save them.

Reid takes the suit and goes rogue. He is soon approched by Captain Midnight who sides with him against the Skyman program. A team led by Sharp is sent to retrieve the Skyman suit and they are all using prototype Skyman suits. Reid takes on Sharp while Captain Midnight handles the rest. The end is explosive, with Reid and Midnight on the winning side, but Sharp isn't out either.

[Little Timmy]

Nice modern story of a golden age style character. Recommended

[Spencer]

So Skyman is a repurposed character from the golden age that Dark Horse dredged up for the hope of catching the superhero craze of the twenty teens.

Unfortunately it possesses all the hallmarks of the social commentary that by now in 2026 is extremely cliche.

White people are racist
The Government is corrupt
The main character is race swapped
The Afghanistan war is bad

While its not like Skyman had an extensive backstory or even interesting stories to ruin, but it still feels so cheap to dredge up a character from generations ago just to shove him into current day politics.

Theres a reason there was never anymore after this. Instead of trying to meaningfully marry the Skyman of the past (which admittedly isnt much) with today, we get a story that feels exactly like a movie made from a book that maintains almost nothing of substance beside visuals from the original property. Even when I didnt know anything about Skyman to begin with.

[Quentin Wallace]

This wasn't bad. The story did have pacing issues as sometimes from page to page it felt like things were happening off panel as things would jump around, think a bad jump cut in a movie. I also was a little confused how this ties into the larger Dark Horse Heroes Universe, but that didn't come too heavily into play here anyway.

The story is based around a government project involving "supersuits", and when an agent goes rogue another agent is needed to fill the void. Then the commanding officer goes rogue too and yeah, it's a mess. Captain Midnight shows up too, although he's thought to be dead and finds himself an outlaw. I think this is covered in Captain Midnight Volume 1.

Overall this wasn't a bad read at all, but I felt like parts were missing and this was only part of a bigger story. I'd still recommend it though as it has more good than bad.

[David Finger]

Somewhat predictable and the characters were not exactly well written. The villains all came off as cartoonish.

[Johan]

The artwork is ok, but the story could have used some more attention.

[Anchorpete]

Ok, so here is an example of the modern super hero book conundrum: You have a compelling story, with interesting character dynamics, but on its own, it is incomplete.

What the hell am I talking about?

Skyman is a spin off, of sorts. The program that gives our main character his super suit was first introduced in another comic book, called Captain Midnight. Both Captain Midnight and Skyman are part of a larger story called "Project Black Sky", which is one part men in black, one part one-stop-shop for superhero origins.

I have enjoyed the Project Black Sky stuff I have read, but I do not think I could recommend this book to someone who is just getting into super hero comics. There is some great tension, between our main character (whose name I have forgotten, forgive me, I have the flu) and the man who helps control his flight suit (whose name I have also forgotten- flu). That is actually the highlight of the book. It is unfortunate that that dynamic is broken down so quickly, in favor of tying Skyman and Captain Midnight together.

[Lukas Holmes]

I like the general story idea but I feel the racism was a little trite. It's one thing to have him replace an openly racist solider, but then to have so many soldiers around him and the story just openly racist felt very phony.

[Awk_Word_Smith]

I'm really enjoying Joshua Fialkov's reboot of Golden Age comics for Dark Horse. Skyman is another solid story with Fialkov's knack for a conspiracy story. Along for the ride, Fialkov brings Captain Midnight just for good measure.

[Doreen]

8/26/14 3.5 stars. Review tk.