Dark Horse Comics 2019
Written by Jody Houser & Andrew R. Robinson
Illustrated by Miguel Sepulveda
Coloured by Maria Santaolalla
Lettered by Steve Dutro
Newly graduated Lieutenant Shivani Singh wants to defend the Dominion on the front lines, but it will take more than good grades and confidence to survive on the edge of Zerg space.
Admittedly I am not a gamer in the sense of playing video games so the game part of this is totally unfamiliar to me. Personally reading this is like reading a much higher class story of Starship Troopers mixed with Tremors and I think that’s utterly fantastic! The idea here is really rather simple and the Dominion has succeeded in creating an empire that raises troops with idealism and a gung-ho attitude who have no idea what the edges of Dominion space look like. Sheltered, even living in what we would consider the slums, it creates a sense false within people who think they want to be where the “action” is.
I love the way this is structured. This has a great opening that brings us our main character. Singh, and shows us her ambitions, desires and just how damn green she is. This is a woman who was raised in the slums and worked her ass off to be the top of her graduating class. The impressions she’s made have been the kind most of us would kill for as the offers she’s being given well they are the easy route. She doesn’t want to be a desk jockey she wants to get her boots on the ground and make a difference. Heh yes Be Careful What You Wish For.…..………
There is a really amazing ebb & flow to the way the story reveals the highs, lows and everything in between. Not to mention a little foreshadowing of her past coming back to haunt her. All of this is presented and it all feels natural, like the choices she makes are the ones she wants to make because that is her personality. I am telling you the characterisation here is bloody phenomenal and even if we meet someone briefly we still get a great sense of who they are personality wise. Very rarely do we see this level of writing and even better is that we are seeing this in the first issue of this arc, which leaves Jody and Andrew a lot to live up.
The interiors are stunning! I love seeing how he’s able to manipulate the varying weights of the linework to create such wonderful attention to detail. Bonus points for not leaving faces in the backgrounds blank too. Miguel and Maria work together so perfectly and to see the colours used to enhance the armour or shade a segment really brings out the impact visually. While I am guessing that designs are from the game I still think there is a nice use of creativity and imagination going on here and that Lurker yeah wow. The utilisation of the page layabouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a spectacular eye for storytelling. How we see backgrounds being utilised here is so gosh darn good as it expands the moments and bring a nice sense of size and scope to the story.
I am telling you the way this ends is horrifically perfect. This is the kind of cliffhanger ending that really makes the eyes go wide in surprise and amazement. I will say I see The Brood and Xenomorphs influence here. The pacing, plot & story development along with the characterisation with these brilliantly stunning interior artwork this can be Dark Horse’s newest outer space horror thriller gold star run!