Tweet
Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: Apr. 16, 2014
The final issue for this Captain Midnight-related character/story reaches a satisfying conclusion as Sgt. Eric Reid faces both his past and his future.
Both he as Skyman and Captain Midnight are beset by a number of suit-wearing flyboys that are following the maniacal Lt. Sharp, who's over-powered his own suit to give himself an edge of them all despite the danger of doing so to himself. The other flyers are easily dispatched by Skyman and Midnight but doing so leaves them falling unconsciously out of the sky. So while Midnight safely delivers them back to the Earth it's now down to Skyman and his nemesis, Sharp.
The fight between them is brief and brutal, with Sharp arming his suit, choosing instead that if he can't be Skyman then he won't let Reid's “joke†of a version survive, either. As his fate seems certain - and his past war trauma threatens to cloud his judgement - Reid is able to rig his flying belt to Sharp's, giving the villain too much thrust and sending him crashing and exploding into the ground below.
Midnight sees this and rescues Skyman, telling him he'll get Reid his own special belt and that he looks forward to their similarly-powered partnership in the future. However, it appears that Sharp was not destroyed in his accident but, instead, has turned into a more powerful and far more insane version of what he's calling Skyman himself. In the epilogue, then, Midnight and Reid's wife are there to speak words of comfort and wisdom to Skyman as he goes in front of the media to confess what he's done, what the program actually was and what he now intends to do as he's come into his own.
Joshua Hale Fialkov's spinoff story works pretty well as a stand-alone, giving some great background to what might just be a secondary character to Captain Midnight. It's full of just the right amount of government conspiracy, redemption and action to make it a great companion series and a solid setup for future appearances in Captain Midnight's continuing storyline. Manuel Garcia's artwork really dazzles, too, giving it all a fantastic glow. Well worth your time!
