Earth in the future is a mess, and it’s time to scramble aboard the Tevat Noah III, a huge space “ark”. Let’s abandon the earth, and sail off to a better future! And it truly IS the ‘Last Flight Out’, the title of this new mini-series from Dark Horse.
Writer and co-creator Marc Guggenheim takes his time to fill us in on the back story of Dr. Ben Caewood. Doctor Caewood is a self absorbed man, focused intently on his scientific work. He misses important days and critical events with his family, because, well, he can’t tear himself away from his terribly important projects.
But when the last Ark is about to depart from earth, Doctor Caewood has a “wake up” moment and seeks to redeem himself with his daughter. He must go find her, and place her on this Ark. Urgently!!
Cocreator and illustrator Eduardo Ferigato, with colourist Marcelo Costa (lettering by Diego Sanches) does a bang-up job on the visuals. The atmospheres and technology are stunning, the faces and gestures are believable, the flow from panel to panel is smooth and engaging. The colouring is amazing, relying on blues and yellows, oranges. In addition to the illustrated comic pages, some of the plot points and subtext are presented in formatted social media posts and government documents. While this simulation adds novelty, it requires the reader to jump in and out of the flow of the story to digest this information.
The plot also takes a long time to get up to speed, and we don’t really trust the good Doctor yet, but this is only the preboarding phase. We patiently await the next issue, where we hope all systems will be a ‘go’. But until then, there is a dangerous mission, plenty of ups and downs, and loads of entertaining human drama to be read!
Dark Horse, Last Flight Out #1, $3.99 for 30 pages of content. Assume Teen rating
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