Barnstormers Issue #1 #2 & #3 Review

First off – I hastily concluded ‘Barstormers’ by Scott Snyder and Tula Lotay is a trilogy, because I remember reading it’s a limited series and there were only three issues for sale on the Kindle store. Presumptuous. Tsk Tsk. It’s actually a five-issue comic book series and the last two installments aren’t out yet. So if you don’t want to be left hanging in suspense, wait for those two to come out. Else, dive into the colorful glossy world of Bix and Tilly, one is a daredevil pilot looking to make money off ‘Barnstorming’, while the other is looking to run off from her wealthy husband and would rather do flying stunts with a madman she just met.

Each issue is only about 30 pages long, so Issue one feels too fleeting and underwhelming, but the gorgeous illustrations by Tula Lotay are worth going through. Snyder gives a quick introduction to ‘Barnstorming’ is before the first issue begins – ‘A form of entertainment popular for a brief period in the 1920s, wherein wayward pilots would impress spectators with dangerous feats of daring.’ And even though the story is supposed to be in the 1920s, everything about this comic series has a 40s/50s vibe, the art-style and scenes reminiscent of Hollywood classics like ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘Casablanca’, even though the romance is nowhere near the grand scale of those eternal hits.

Issue 3 was the most action-packed, where readers finally get a little more context to what’s happening, but just when things do get exciting, the pages come to an end. Like the blurb of the comic-series suggest, the ‘Barnstormers’ duo are indeed a bit like ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, except that they give their pursuers a slip by flying off in the air. The characterization of Bix and Tilly is superficial and you never feel strongly for them, they are akin to pulp fiction leads – good-looking and forgettable. Perhaps the last two issues would be more exciting.

Overall, it’s a 3.5/5 from me for the first three issues.