Advance Review: Mavinga’s Strong Artwork Highlights An Otherwise Uneventful ‘White Sky’ #5
by Tom Smithyman
Parsing our background during an ongoing series can be a tricky storytelling task. In the case of White Sky, it feels more like an interruption.
Five issues in, and there’s still much we don’t know about this post-apocalyptic world. We know that five years ago, something happened to turn the sky white and apparitions appeared and started killing people. Until this latest issue, though, the creative team was sparce with other details.
Writer William Harms finally doles out some background in this chapter. We learn that the apparitions are often known to the people they are chasing. Main character Violet, for example, first encountered her dead mother when the outbreak began. We also know that there are levels of these specters. Some can be blocked with simple iron; the more advanced beings are stopped with salt.
Still, as with the best traditions of storytelling, for every answer comes more questions. And readers won’t come away from this issue with a lot more information. In fact, that’s the real issue with this chapter. There is only a little advancement in the story. The threat builds throughout as we digest these backstory parcels. But when you summarize the issue, very little actually happens.
Despite that, artist J.P. Mavinga has some material to work with. He does a good job of mixing panels that feature closeups with broader scene-setting images. His illustrations of humans are fine, but what distinguishes him is his apparitions. The creatures, in various stages of decay, truly look frightening. We don’t really know that much about them, but we know we don’t want to run into them.
Mavinga’s artwork is almost — almost — enough to save this issue from the overall story arc’s uneven exposition. But a better plan up front would make the ongoing tale less frustrating for readers who just want to understand a little more of what’s going on and why.
White Sky #5 — written by William Harms, illustrated by J.P. Mavinga, colored by Lee Loughridge, and lettered by Ed Dukeshire — will be available on Wednesday in comic book stories and on digital platforms from Image Comics.
Overview
Some creative illustrations nearly save this issue from itself. As good as the artwork is, though, it’s not quite enough to make up for some uneven pacing. After reading this issue, you realize that very little happened and you don’t have much more information about the ongoing story itself.