Dark Horse Comics 2019
Written by Jody Houser
Illustrated by Gabriel Guzman
Coloured by Michael Atiyeh
Lettered by Steve Dutro
The only survivor of a scavenging mission gone wrong, Caleb—a skilled engineer—is forced to do a murderous dark templar's bidding as they race through space.
This is based on an original story by Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft game team and Jody Houser. I like this because it means that this is the game it just takes advantage of the game's world. Kind of like going to your best friends and playing in their sandbox, you are allowed to have fun and do what ya like with them. It also means that this is completely new reader friendly as everything you really need to know you learn along the way, just like any other book.
The opening here is great and it's a perfect way to be drawn into the book and wonder what the heck is going on. This made me want to keep going that's for sure and that desire pays off as I really enjoyed the entire book. Still it is the opening that readers' see first and this one has a pretty darn good one too. The fact that we don't need a lot of explanation as to what happened as the visual clues are plenty for us to figure out what happened. How things got to this point however is something else and while it's not really important it is something that the readers' mind is going to try to piece together, thus engaging the readers' mind in all the right ways.
I like the way that the story & plot development mixes with the character development so that things keep this great ebb & flow as we learn about the characters, this universe and see how the plot twists and turns keep us on our toes. The structure of the story is fantastic and this dark templar character is creepy in ever single way that matters and Caleb is scared as all get out just wanting to stay alive. That the interaction between the two is so crystal clear is fantastic and just what the creature is after being a mystery is an amazing hook.
The introduction of characters that come into Caleb's life is well done and has this incredibly natural feel to it so much so that he seems afraid of making friends because of what happened to the last friends he had.
I am absolutely in love with these interiors here. The linework is utterly gorgeous and how we see the varying weights being utilised so they create this stupendous attention to detail makes me a very happy camper. The way we see the composition inside the panels with the backgrounds be so prominent throughout give this a science fiction frontier feel to it, they enhance the moments and bring that size and scope to the book that helps us grasp the enormity of the universe. The way that page layouts are utilised and how we see the angles and perspective show a stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work is out of this world crazy good. The way we see everything from the utilisation of light sources to create shading and shadows to the different hues and tones in copper and clothing to the blues in lights and computers shine so brightly. The creativity and imagination on display here is bloody brilliant.
The way we see what occurs here has such a profound effect on the characterisation as well as the reader. Jody is writing this with such an expertise that with each page I am glued to what we see and in awe of her talent, skill and creativity in the way her mind is able to work. This is the kind of storytelling I think of when I think of Dark Horse, it's cutting edge, sleek and brilliantly done.