For three years, flying, nigh-invulnerable teenager Barry Chase was Flyboy, sidekick to the imagination-impaired but crime-fighting master The Red Cowl, and all was well, though Flyboy was the butt of a lot of jokes. Together, The Red Cowl and Flyboy brought peace to Sol City, fighting for truth, justice and some third goal that the Red Cowl could never quite put his finger on but was sure he’d figure out in time. But then the Red Cowl was defeated and killed — some say by the villain Terraform, others by one of the Moonglow sisters — and Flyboy was left on his own. It is at this point that Sidekick, the latest J. Michael Straczynski comic from Image Comics, begins.

The first issue of the second title from Joe’s Comics to be published by Image, Sidekick, will be in stores on August 7 and is drawn by Tom Mandrake and Brian Miller, with a limited-edition variant cover by Charlie Adlard that will debut at San Diego Comic-Con, taking place on July 17 – 21.

Sidekick tells the story of nineteen-year old Barry, a.k.a, Flyboy, in the aftermath of his mentor’s death and his decision to continue his crime-fighting career, even though no one takes him seriously — not the good guys, not the bad guys, nobody. Any attempt Flyboy makes to improve his image backfires, and soon, unloved and unsupported, he descends into darkness.

Sidekick #1 will be in comic book stores on August 7, and a special, exclusive edition will be available in limited quantities at Comic-Con International in San Diego from July 18-21, where Straczynski will be a special guest of Image Comics.