Gamma Flight #5

Gamma Flight #5

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Al Ewing & Crystal Frasier

Illustrated by Lan Medina

Coloured by Antonio Fabela

Lettered by VC’s Joe Sabino

THE REVELATIONS OF RICK JONES!

​ Rick Jones is one of the oldest, most beloved sidekicks of the Marvel Universe. Del Frye is a high school hero with a horrific past. Together they are... what? Meanwhile, in the pulse-punching finale of the battle with Abomination, new gamma mutate Dionne discovers untapped strengths — but will it be enough to take down the monster who made her? The future of gamma is at stake, and no one will emerge unscathed…

So after reading this my first question is when is issue 6 coming out? This eclectic cast of characters is just too good for this to be the end of the story plus with the way that this ends they’ve established themselves as a team/family unit and we don’t see this at this level at Marvel and it’s high time we did. Plus for those of us that didn’t read Immortal Hulk where this comes from, I’m guessing, there is still so much to explore regarding how they got powered up and changed so completely from what they once were. On a side note Titania and Creed make one heck of a power couple and they are the rock of this group.

I am very much enjoying 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 exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the narration, 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 bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we want to see.

I very much appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. The layers open up these new avenues to explore and what they do is add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. Though Skaar and The Abomination open up avenues that aren’t being explored though they do present some interesting questions thus engaging the reader. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceptionally well achieved.

I am a huge fan of the interiors here. The linework is utterly marvellous and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the detail work that we see is phenomenal. The creativity and imagination here is amazing, to see creed absorb that and become what he did was beyond expectations. We could definitely use more backgrounds but how we see the composition within the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is extremely well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is bloody stunning. The greens alone, especially in Rick & Del, blow my mind with how we see the colour utilised to create the linework and the definition. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really shows a masterful eye for colour and how to maximise its effects.

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This is far and away the most fun, interesting and hard hitting books that we’ve seen come out from Marvel in a while and it would be great to see them explored more than you can do in five issues. I would definitely make this a pull list item because it’s just the way this creative brings this to life for me is the epitome of what storytelling is.