Last Flight Out #2

Last Flight Out #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Created & Written by Marc Guggenheim

Created & Illustrated by Eduardo Ferigato

Coloured by Natalia Marques

Lettered by Diego Sanches

The only way to survive is to abandon Earth! With less than twenty-four hours to go until the complete evacuation of Earth, scientist Ben Caewood has to find his daughter in the lawless wasteland that is Chicago, Illinois—but things aren't exactly what they seem and Ben isn't prepared for this issue's shocking final page twist.

I really like this book and seeing more of the relationship between Ben and Sara and just how bad of a father he really is. Ben is just so consumed with work to the exclusion of all else that he cannot see just how much it affects his daughter and while I understand the fate of the world hangs in the balance, that's no excuse to ignore your child. Then again what do I know but what Marc does with this is engage the reader so thoroughly by what we see that we come up with ideas of our own to fit into the narrative. I’m more impressed than I thought I would be and considering this is Guggenheim we’re talking about that’s saying a whole heck of a lot.

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 dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really brings their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we are pulled into this deeper and deeper.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. That these layers open up avenues for exploration is extremely well done and while not all will be explored they all do add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story so that the interest and intrigue factors are raised exponentially. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here have a very classic comic book style feel to them and I like that a lot. The linework is clean, crisp and sharp and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail we see within the work is incredibly strong. Backgrounds are utilised fairly well throughout the book and they do wonders in expanding and enhancing the moments. They also 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. 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 various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show an incredible understanding of how colour works.

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So is Sara just being obstinate and Ben being overly hopeful given that the other one will do as they are told? I mean if the Earth is really dying why would she stay, just to spite her father? That’s cutting off your nose to spite your face. On the other hand, assuming she’s going to leave because he wants her to, well, that’s just incredibly naive on his part. The issues these two have would take more years than either of them have to live to work out and something is going to have to give here. Again as a reader I go off page and this level of engagement is masterfully crafted by Marc. The writing is superb and the characterisation is flawless while the interiors bring it all to life with such incredible ease.