2 out of 5

I know, rating 12 issues off of the two I own isn’t really fair.  But that no aspect of either issue made me waver on my overall opinion seems like enough to go on for now.

I’m not big on fantasy; I have an appreciation for sci-fi.  I’m definitely not experienced in the latter in any medium (TV / movies I have the most exposure, but it’s still lacking), but it’s one of those things I’m open to and try to keep an eye on.  The problem is that sci-fi very often dips into the aspects of fantasy which I don’t quite dig.  It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the formula is; perhaps fantasy sets itself in a magic-ruled land, and then tends to follow characters, whereas sci-fi leans on pseudo-science, and tends to use ideas as a vehicle, populated by characters.  So when sci-fi goes character first, I start to feel the ol’ fantasy melodrama alert and tune out.  Big example of this: the old school Alien Legion.  I wanted to love that series because of how flush its world-building was, but it got so wrapped up in character arcs that I just couldn’t get into the flow.  ‘Sun Devils’ – something something rag tag group of star fighters raging against the something somethings – definitely is of the same school, focusing mostly on character (issue 3 even has a beach-side love making session) and then just tossing them into generic sci-fi conventions.  What makes it less interesting is that Conway couldn’t even to seem to wring out any original characters – these are all completely by the book, haunted pasts, animal familiars and all.  Gerry’s normally pretty skilled at dressing up comic pap with flourish, but what attempts ‘Sun Devils’ displayed in these two issues felt more forced than fun, echoed by Conway’s streeeetching out narrative captions across three panels by repeating phrases.  Meaning it all felt like filler.

Thankfully, Dan Jurgens was / is a compelling penciller / paneler; while the dialogue may not capture my attention, flipping through the pages sure is fun.

It was cool that DC gave space to some original projects in the 80s, but it seems there’s a reason I hadn’t heard much of the series prior to stumbling across it in a dollar bin.