I’ve really enjoyed Jonathan Hickman’s Star Trek meets Top Gun experiment titled “Red Wing”. It’s been a cool mix of time travel science fiction and military drama. The friendships have been developed and the family dynamics have been explored in a cool and original way. That gets to why this third issue didn’t work as well for me. It’s a good issue but with the exception of one scene, it really didn’t offer the personal connection between the characters that I liked in the other issues. I also felt is was an abruptly paced book moving from one scene to another in big leaps. The sci-fi action is fun and Hickman’s created universe is interesting and creative. But I found myself confused in the last half of the book and not 100% what it was I was reading.

Nick Pitarra’s unique art style continues to impress. It’s a peculiar style that’s a little rough around the edges but it’s strikingly effective when combined with Hickman’s story. Pitarra sharply captures Hickman’s vision of alien worlds and futuristic technology. His character depictions are somewhat of a mixed bag. At times they look perfectly appropriate with the overall tone of the book while elsewhere they look as though the weren’t given the detail they needed. But still this is another visually satisfying issue and in many ways the art makes up for where the story falls a little short.

With only one more issue left it’s going to be interesting to see how the story ends. While this didn’t come across as strong as the previous books it feels as though it will read much better in collected form. This book still packs enough interest and intrigue to bring me back for a finale that I hope really ends strong.