Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Art by: Tom Mandrake
Publisher: Image Comics
Sidekick doesn’t get many accolades but I for one thing it is one of the most consistent comics in the last year or so.
After a slight hiatus, as all Image Comics books have before the first trade comes out, we pick up literally where issue 6 left off. Previously, Flyboy had learnt the truth about Red Cowl faking his own death and tasked himself with finding him to no avail. If you thought last issue was serious then this issue really took it up a notch with not an ounce of the humoristic Barry Chase that we saw in the first 5 issues. Barry has one focus and that is tracking down Red Cowl and now allied with Julia has never been more determined.
It was a strange issue overall, as we get an origin story of Red Cowl seven issues in. The origin is really interesting though, specifically fact that how Red Cowl got his powers and what also stemmed from this could lead to Red Cowl being tracked by Barry and Julia. It sort of reminded me of the film Junior with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito .
We then get a really strange sequence with Barry becoming a new superhero supervillian and giving himself a name which I found quite surprising as didn’t really fit in with what has happened in the past couple of issues and who Barry seemed to be becoming.
Barry then does some recruiting in a supervillian bar which was an excellently drawn action sequence with some great colouring. I have really liked how the action sequences have been done in this series and the artist is great at getting the emotions just right in the faces of the characters and the ‘extras’.
The issue concludes with Barry and Julia finding what it was they were looking for with the aid of their new recruit and then finishes with a catch up on Red Cowl which didn’t really add anything to the issue.
This issue was an odd one as I have loved the series so far, but don’t get me wrong this is not a bad issue at all it just wasn’t as strong as previous issues. The story makes some good progression and starts the new arc off well as it clearly shows us where the writer is going with this while introducing some new characters who will surely have a big impact on the series. The art is also nicely done and has been very consistent since the beginning of the series. However, I am slightly mystified by a couple of things such as the new name Barry is calling himself and also the need for including Red Cowl at this stage when he really isn’t up to much. Despite these slight snags I am really looking forward to see where this is going next and this time luckily there is only a month to wait.
