Gamma Flight #1 - Marvel Comics

GAMMA FLIGHT No. 1, August 2021

Enthusiastically described by writer Al Ewing as being a series which will both "explore some of the concepts and plant some of the seeds from Immortal Hulk in their own space”, as well as “tickle Hulk fans old and new.”, this twenty-two page periodical probably disappointed many of the Eisner Award-nominee’s fans upon its release. For whilst the British author’s script undoubtedly deals with Puck, Absorbing Man, Titania, Doc Sasquatch, Doctor Charlene McGowan “and a horribly changed Rick Jones” suddenly becoming “fugitives from every known authority”, the comic’s plot focuses far more upon the considerable cast’s social life as uncomfortable ‘roomies’ as opposed to depicting any significant pulse-pounding action.

True, this opening instalment to a five-part story co-penned by Crystal Frasier, certainly starts off well enough with Carl Creel and Leonard Samson being caught red-handed by some badly out-gunned soldiers whilst the super-strong duo are busy pillaging the decommissioned Shadow Base Remote Facility FNJ4 for essential supplies. But this bullet-riddled sequence is cut all-too short by the abrupt departure of Sasquatch to “somewhere in New Mexico” via his team’s cantankerous translocator, and the creative crew’s disappointing decision to skip depicting Absorbing Man’s subsequent minute alone with the military; “I need sixty-five seconds to recharge the capacitors, Carl --”

Instead, Ewing decides to concentrate upon how well Samson can give McGowan a shoulder massage, Mary MacPherran going down on one bended knee so as to propose to an already-married Creel, and the physically malformed Jones unsuccessfully trying to play a car racing video game using Del Frye’s fluorescent green hands. Such long-winded insights into Gamma Flight’s relationships with one another badly slows down the pacing of this publication, to the point where it isn’t until its final third that the ‘outlaws’ actually begin investigating news of a gamma-mutant attack in Austin, and even then the sense-shattering shenanigans only last seven panels before the normally violent Absorbing Man supposedly talks their huge opponent down into peacefully conversing with them...?

Equally as unimposing as this comic’s narrative are Lan Medina’s layouts, which are arguably so inconsistent that some Hulk-heads were probably fooled into initially thinking more than one artist was behind the book’s pencilling. The Filipino illustrator does a pretty proficient job when tasked to sketch the likes of an angry Titania crunching a hapless Police car or two. Yet, the aforementioned scenes involving ‘domestic bliss’ in the Creel household seemingly lack any real animation or dynamic life.

The regular cover art of "GAMMA FLIGHT" #1 by Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho