James Robinson may be sick of rebooting Golden Age characters, but that disdain might have just lead him and collaborator Greg Hinkle to some of his best work ever in “Airboy”. That is, if the heroin snorting doesn’t kill them both before it’s finished.
Written by James Robinson
Illustrated By Greg Hinkle
When acclaimed comics author JAMES ROBINSON (Starman, Fantastic Four) is hired to write a reboot of the 1940s action hero Airboy, he’s reluctant to do yet another Golden Age reboot. Just what the hell has happened to his career-?! His marriage?! His life?! Hey, it’s nothing that a drink can’t fix.It’s after one such night of debauchery with artist GREG HINKLE that the project really comes into its own. Quite literally. Because Airboy himself appears to set the two depraved comic book creators on the straight and narrow.
But is the task too much for our hero?
If you come to this series expecting a traditional Golden Age re-imagining, like the Superpowers over at Dynamite or even Eclipse’s own revamp of Airboy back in the 1980’s, you will be sorely disappointed. It’s important to let everyone know as soon as possible, if the cover image of semi-naked comic creators nursing hangovers wasn’t enough of a clue, that this comic is about Airboy like Adaptation was about The Orchid Thief. And I’m truly sorry if you’re sad you aren’t just getting a straight-ahead relaunch of the original Airboy property, but what Robinson and Hinkle put together in this “Airboy” is a much stronger contribution to comics than that would have been.
That solicit copy lays out the story’s basic premise: the day that Airboy shows up to save is Robinson’s life, which we see is heading completely off the rails. (I do take a little issue with the solicit mentioning TWO depraved creators, because Robinson is operating on a completely different level than Hinkle, who is more a padawan to Robinson’s full-on Jedi master.) But for that rescue to work for the readers, we need to not just see, but feel the depravity. And the execution of that is where at least half of the power of this issue comes from: Robinson’s willingness to set this work in the parameters of his own life’s darkest moments, with only the thinnest of veils to cover some really fucked-up behavior. And that kind of public display isn’t completely unheard of him, as he goes into some uncomfortable spots at times in the retrospective afterwords to his “Starman” omnibuses, it’s turned up to 11 in “Airboy.”
We love watching human train wrecks, especially if they involve people we’ve never seen before. But if you know the person involved, that otherwise-vicarious thrill comes with baggage; a little guilt, a little hesitation. I don’t know Robinson personally but I’ve followed and enjoyed his work & career for enough years that seeing him act like an asshole is, frankly, kind of tough. “Airboy” isn’t a documentary like Some Kind of Monster, but Robinson fuels the story’s narrative engine with enough of his own insecurities, personal history, and bad behavior that it certainly feels pretty metafictional at times. For example, when he tells Hinkle that he picked him to work on Airboy because his art is “different” and looks “fresh”, because those are some of the words I’d use to describe his work as well.
In ways that I probably can’t fully articulate, I keep thinking of “Airboy” as a weird spiritual second cousin to “Casanova”, and a lot of that has to do with how Greg Hinkle is handling the visuals. His linework feels like it’s in the same family as the brothers Ba & Moon; maybe a branch of that clan came north to the States. When you’re telling a story set in the real world, there are a lot of little details that the art needs to convey on an almost-subconscious level to keep the reader, especially those familiar with the story’s particular setting, from crying foul. As someone who has spent a lot of time in San Francisco, I can assure you that Hinkle completely nails it. in addition to that, “Airboy”‘s limited color palette is most likely another strong connector to “Casanova”. But don’t mistake limited for simple or lazy; Hinkle keeps the schemes contained to a few distinct color families both to give the overall book a distinct visual identity and to set up the contrast when he breaks from that pattern for a storytelling purpose. (You can look at the issue cover above for an example of the two.) “Airboy” is Hinkle’s highest profile comics gig to date, and the work he’s doing here, hitting emotional moments and beats while still exaggerating for comedic effect when needed, is definitely making Robinson look like a genius for bringing him onboard.
“Airboy” is a surprisingly personal work from a writer already known for letting his characters speak for him. In Greg Hinkle, Robinson has found an artist capable of delivering that work with the appropriate weight and delicate touch a naked display of truth like this requires. I had high hopes for this book, and it did not disappoint.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – In trying to figure out just what the hell to do with yet another Golden Age revamp, Robinson and Hinkle give us an unexpectedly raw and hilarious look at two modern day creators.
