Dark Wing #1 is a fascinating sci-fi epic full of action and a world we’re dumped into the deep end to explore. It’s an unknown time and a human-like race is mining material they desperately need to survive. It’s a dangerous mission full of risk. It’s also full of visuals that challenge you to linger on the page to figure out everything going on.

Written by Matthew Medney, Dark Wing #1 is a solid sci-fi concept and comic with a lot of tension throughout. That tension and a wondering of “will the mission succeed” is the draw as we get little on the actual characters. This is a debut that drops the reader in the deep end as the action is underway with no build-up and no set-up. You’re challenged to piece together what’s going on in the thick of the action.

There’s some crazy concepts presented and I found much of my reading of the issue was just trying to piece together exactly what was going on. The mining of the material, the design of the ships, and how it all connects together, it’s a take that’s original. That originality also forces you to focus a bit more and just go with the flow. It’s a different sort of world and sci-fi adventure with a DNA that’s very familiar.

That unfamiliarity is primarily in the art. German Ponce handles that with color by Protobunker Studios. The design of the ships and where people are in relation to each other is a bit hard to piece together in my review copy. It’s possible the physical copy of the series is a bit easier to understand with the ability to get the literal full picture but as I read it, I found myself jumping between pages. And even then, I was a bit confused as to what was going on visually. It’s definitely a different thought on page layout and design of the ships. It took me much of the comic to get used to it. That’s not necessarily bad as further issues shouldn’t have this problem and I can focus more on the story itself.

That focus is needed. Dark Wing #1 doesn’t explain a lot about its characters and world. You’re really forced to figure out who people are and what’s going on by a sentence or two. The set-up is built into the story which is itself focused on the action. This feels like a bit more dense of a comic debut and should be interesting to see where it goes but as it stands this is one that might be for those really into space focused science fiction.

Story: Matthew Medney Art: German Ponce
Color: Protobunker Studios Creative Team: Brice Edwards, Pete Russo
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

Heavy Metal Entertainment provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: Zeus Comics – comiXology