In a medium packed full of re-writes, re-releases, and re-boots, it’s always refreshing when something more or less new comes along. At Portland Oregon’s Rose City Comic Con this past weekend, Dark Horse Comics announced that their new superhero, Skyman, will make his debut next year.
While the superhero himself is new, the setting and plot draws on a classic hero from our grandparents’ time. Captain Midnight, which originated as a radio show in 1938 and was later turned into a comic, is a heroic U.S. Army pilot who has a direct hand in the origins of this newly announced hero.
A Skyman, a soldier in the Skyman Program, turns to the drink after a humiliating defeat from Captain Midnight. In so doing, he accidentally kills an innocent person, which in turn causes the program of which he’s a part to abandon him and find a replacement. They turn to Eric Reid, Air Force Captain, who has plenty to overcome before he’s ready to be the next Skyman.
The Eisner and Emmy award winning, Joshua Hale Fialkov, writer of Tumor, and the animated film Afro Samurai: Resurrection will write Skyman. In reverence of the classic universe in which he’s writing, he was quoted saying that he’s, “So honored to be a part of a line of comics that seek to bring back the classic feel of superheroes but in a thoroughly modern way.” And few things feel quite as modern as drunken man responsible for manslaughter making way for the new blood.
While Skyman #1 isn’t slated for release until January 15th, 2014, he will make his first appearance in Captain Midnight #4, which comes out at the end of October of this year. It will appear as a four-issue miniseries, which, if popular, will hopefully expand into much more.