Skyward No. 10: ‘Here There Be Dragonflies’ part five

Things get wild in the latest issue of Skyward.

Hopefully you’ve been following along with what’s happening with Skyward. This comic, about an Earth that loses most of it’s gravity, and one woman’s journey to set things right, has been optioned by Sony Pictures. It is to be directed by Rampage director Brad Peyton and executive-produced by Joe Henderson, writer/producer of the television show Lucifer, who is also the writer of the comic.

Henderson, along with artist Lee Garbett, colorist Antonio Fabela, and letterer Simon Bowland, really crafted an artful imagining of a genius of an idea: “Almost-no-gravity-Earth”. Giant mosquitoes and globular thunderstorms later, the main characters have reached the end of the second arc, and big things are about to happen.

Image Comics

Skyward teaches us the art of the gross-out

The issue opens up with a sexually charged discussion of gigantic bugs between some security guards, when they’re distracted by a giant vegan firefly. Last issue, Willa and Edison were going to reverse-kidnap evil Roger Barrow from Lucas, who had kidnapped him already. The two protagonists sneak through closed doors, grab Barrow, and immediately get confronted by one of the security goons that work with Lucas. Barrow says some really mean things and they escape as the guard sobs on the ground. Pretty brutal.

To sneak Barrow and Willa (because of her notoriety from when she saved that train of people) out, Edison has them climb inside the guts of a giant bug being processed for food (everyone only eats bugs now, many unwittingly). Because it’s a comic book packed full of action, Lucas, the slightly-off but dashingly handsome leader of the farm they’re on, instantly opens some doors and asks Edison to come talk somewhere private. Danger! Danger! Our heroes are then separated. Food workers show up to start cutting up the bug, and Willa and Barrow pop out the fresh slice, claiming to have been saved from being eaten. The scene was super-gross, and one of the workers puked. Gross.

Image Comics

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Dirty moves and cheesy choices abound in Skyward

 Lucas tells Edison that the codes to help attack Chicago have already been gotten from Barrow, so they don’t need Barrow anymore. Willa slips Barrow past security and they’re on their way out when Willa realizes Edison might be sacrificing himself for her, and no sooner are we shown her epiphany than Lucas starts fighting with Edison and uses his legs (Edison is an above-knee double amputee) to blast off from the ground and launch Edison through the greenhouse ceiling. Talk about a jerk move; who breaks greenhouses?

Floating above the building, Edison notices that the farm is burning down. Lucas destroyed the farm so everyone would be forced to go to the city for the upcoming battle, in a real questionable choice. He then makes a very silly one by putting three shards of broken glass in his gloved hands in preparation to do battle, much like a certain disgruntled superhero. Not sure why they went there. Willa zooms in with the butterfly wings from the farm, fans a bunch of shattered glass at Lucas, and rescues the Hell out of Edison.

Barrow gets away, Edison gave Willa’s dad’s journal with the solution to fixing gravity in it, and the two head out on separate missions: Edison will fly to Chicago to warn people, and Willa will super-jump like the Hulk to track down Barrow. The final panel shows a mysterious individual watching Willa with binoculars, making parental comments. Except her mother floated away when gravity first disappeared, and her father died in front of her: who could it be? Let us know in the comments section below.