My Cultural Diet

Forty years ago, Air Force pilot Duke McQueen liberated an oppressed alien world from a brutal tyrant. Unfortunately, nobody back on Earth believed he was an intergalactic hero except for his beloved wife. After she dies, though, McQueen is left all alone in the universe — until an unlikely alien visitor arrives with an opportunity for him to find a new purpose in life and relive his past glories. Given Mark Millar’s work on Wanted, Kick-Ass, and Wolverine’s “Old Man Logan” storyline, you might expect Starlight to be a rather gloomy affair. Although there is a melancholy thread running throughout the series, with its ruminations on aging and nostalgia, it’s ultimately a delightful swashbuckling tale that pulls inspiration from pulp heroes like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, complete with crazy rayguns and fantastical spaceships. A film adaptation by Joe Cornish (Lockwood & Co., Attack the Block) is currently in production, and I really hope it captures both the comic’s emotional subtext and pulp-y vibe.

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