As the title lays it out, Uma, Cat, and Jorn are stuck in space in their stolen spaceship with a paranoid pirate alien, a robot they can understand and to top it off it’s the worst part of space,the part no one goes to because it’s too dangerous even for the most advanced species. The fun takes a break in this issue. For better or for worse these characters have to deal with each other at their best and worst. And teenagers at their worst are, well… the worst.
The issue starts off with the familiar tones of the book, the defined characteristics of our protagonists and who takes charge of what. It remains a lot of fun to read, but as I read an interaction between Uma and Jorn on the first issue, one of Jorn and Cat in the second issue, it’s the turn of Uma and Cat to give themselves a one-on-one, and they have a lot to share with each other.
It’s great to see a third issue that shifts gear into a more in depth territory. It’s not just about a bunch of teens off into space, but now the questions are of why has Earth completely shut down to the rest of the Universe and how are they involved in this.What will be the consequences for all three of these characters for their actions, being that two of them are active military personnel and one a known activist with a past.
Marcus To is killing it on art duty. The dynamic panels allow for flow from one character to another, I enjoyed the beginning of a space dance party, and followed Cat as she took longer than the rest (including the robot) to join in. Two pages put a full Daft Punk Interstella 5555 back in my mind and was dancing along. The same goes for a very intimate moment between Uma and Cat while floating in space, the harmony To and Kniivila achieved during those pages was superb. There was rising tension to that sequence as well as the issue as a whole. Every page leaves me with something to carry in your mind onto the next, whether it's a facial expression, a dynamic pose that I can swear is moving as my eyes follow the panel, or fun gestures like our friendly robot trying to communicate with this fun band of misfits.
Lanzing and Kelly continue to create a larger world through the lives of these three. Their backgrounds and their lives continue to serve as windows to the larger world they are leaving behind but continues to trail them. Having a shift and what follows made for the kind of in depth storytelling that can easily carry Joyride into a great, interesting ongoing series, and it seems it will balance changes in tone the way Cowboy Bebop did at one point, putting a well-rounded Action/Adventure comic in our hands.
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