Review – Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye #1: A Star Is Born

Cave Carson Has An Interstellar Eye #1 – Jon Rivera, Writer; Michael Avon Oeming, Paul Maybury, Artists; Nick Filardi, Colorist

Ratings:

Ray – 9/10

Corrina: Boom!

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

Ray: Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, the surreal, gorgeous Young Animal title that reinvented one of DC’s most obscure adventurers returns with a cosmic take, Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye, that sends Cave and his daughter to deep space. The opening segment is wild and kinetic, maybe a bit too confusing as Cave’s ship crashes through an alien castle and annoys a little robot butler, before getting to its destination – the palace of a legendary cosmic musician named Star Adam. Cave’s had a lot of adventures off-panel, and apparently, some of them were very strange, because he named his daughter after Star Adam’s dog from one of his most popular songs. Star Adam himself is a fascinating character, coming off like a pastiche of Prince and Chuck Berry if he was twenty feet tall. He welcomes his old friend and his allies to his glitzy castle, where they engage in a multidimensional meal and Adam drops the bomb of the issue – he’s dying.

He’s essentially brought Cave to the castle to help him with his death ritual. They reminisce about their first encounter, which is a wildly psychedelic segment that delivers some of the best visuals of the issue, and then they travel into deep space where Adam will essentially turn into a dying star. Surprisingly, it’s Chloe who gets to share this moment with him, not Cave – and that may have been a mistake, as she isn’t aware of exactly what his death means, namely the destruction of everything around him in a massive star death. This leads to a wild escape from the collapsing galaxy – and while the ship escapes, it’s not clear if Earth is. It’s a smaller cast so far, but no less exciting a story and Oeming’s art is brilliant as always. The short backup with Paul Maybury’s art flashes back to Cave’s origins and promises to tell the story of exactly what happened to his first team. Thus far, we’re two-for-two in Young Animal titles coming back from the Milk Wars event just as strong or stronger.

Corrina: The strength of this Cave Carson revival has always been Cave and Chloe’s relationship and Oeming’s brilliant art. Both are back in good form with this revival, especially in the banter between Cave and Chloe about her name. I saw echoes of Henry Jones Jr. in the conversation about being named after a dog (“We named the dog Indiana!”) and that’s entirely appropriate given Cave and Chloe’s life. However, Star Adam made me think not only of Prince but also David Bowie.

Oeming handles everything from the little robot butler to the giant Star Adam to the psychedelic moments with equal skill, making sure that while the visuals are surreal, the reader is never confused. This was one of Young Animal’s best titles and it maintains that quality with this new series.

However, I would caution anyone who wants to jump into this series to start with the initial stories as I suspect events might be confusing others. Besides, those volumes are excellent reading and should not be missed.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

Disclaimer: GeekDad received this item for review purposes.