Chinese architect Lei Ling’s life outside of the costume becomes the focus of the latest issue of writer Zhou Liefen’s Aero. The Chinese superhero is once again brought to the page by artist Keng. Greg Pak handles the adaptation of a story the peels away from the nonstop action of previous issues to dive more into the overall emotional state of a young architect who just happens to be a superhero. Also, this issue: Aero’s more US-styled action back-up feature leads itself to a date with destiny and Atlantis Attacks #1 next month in a story written by Greg Pak and Alyssa Wong with art by Pop Mhan.

Ridiculously tall crystalline spires are popping-up all over Shanghai. No one knows why. No one seems to care. Shanghai has a new protector, who just wants to get to the office and start the day at her day job. She’s in a taxi cab on her way morning commute when she begins to understand the complexities of the effect of a superhero on the general public in a conversation that calls to mind a date with her boyfriend in which he accused her of being the superhero she really is. Concerns of the past vanish as she arrives at the office only to find that Aero’s greatest foe is there...and knows that Lei Ling is her secret identity. 

Liefen has spent so much of the past few issues throwing Aero into action that she so gracefully glides through. Here she finally gets a breather in more abstract philosophical moments in her civilian life. The awkwardness of running into a cabbie who actually has a little plushy of her superhero secret identity dangling from his rearview mirror is a kind of fun that most mainstream superhero comics don’t often allow their title characters. Zhou’s delicate dive into Lei Ling’s psyche isn’t over-rendered the way it might be with so many writers. There’s no long-drawn-out inner monologue thrusting itself through the narrative. The casual moments of drama feel very well-paced and cleverly understated. The same cannot be said of Greg Pak and Alyssa Wong’s Aero and Wave back-up serial, which feels impossibly cluttered on its way out to the big crossover Atlantis Attacks crossover that will happen next month.

Keng offers page and panel the same clean simplicity in Lei Ling’s personal life that he has given her costumed life as action heroine Aero. The more down-to-earth aspect of Lei Ling’s life is given a very naturalistic approach as Lei Ling heads off to work in the morning. There’s a bright radiance about the issue in the Shanghai morning. The wide, sweeping shots of a bustling city give Lei Ling’s daily life a different kind of grace about it, which is challenged in the dramatic ending as Madame Huang reveals herself. Pop Mhan’s art for the back-up would probably feel perfectly aright in its own series. Still, the more standard American-style of superhero comic book art feels all too dense as the back-up to a more elegant oasis from the more traditional superhero artwork that is Keng’s style.

Liefen’s decision to finally allow readers a glimpse of Ling’s professional life pays-off in a fun issue. Lei Ling sees the effect of her influence as a superhero as the mysterious crystalline spires continue to rise in a very well-balanced, even-tempered breather between action issues. The sudden collision of lives for Aero/Lei Ling at the end of the issue does an excellent job of launching the series into the complexity of impending action for next issue.

Grade: A-