Zenescope Entertainment 2017
Written by Joe Brusha
Illustrated by Sergio Arino
Coloured by Dijjo
Lettered by Kurt Hathaway
One hundred years in the future the “age of pirates” has returned as mankind reaches out for the stars. Schooners have been replaced by star ships and these pirates wield space age weaponry, but they are as bloodthirsty and ruthless as their predecessors were centuries before them. Experience a new universe of swashbuckling action and adventure in the vast reaches of space!
I know I give Joe a hard time and I have no idea if he even sees these reviews or avoids them, I think I have a pretty good handle on the type of guy he is already. Honestly I hope he knows about these because the ideas are fantastic it’s just the little things he kind of needs to work on and in this issue I feel like he’s doing just that. For the first time I feel like the book flows well, the transitions from scene to scene are done nicely and the overall feel of the book is positive and not full of cliché or tired old plots recycled.
Though I will say we see far too few aliens species here, at this point in the future of human history and with what we’ve seen already in other Zenescope books means we should be seeing more of them used here. That’s a minor thing though and the big bad here, well that’s not entirely correct because there are two big bad’s here and both have something in common. The mystery surrounding them and their origins, two vastly different yet similar men, are something that definitely captures the attention and leaves the reading wanting to know more.
Sergio does a splendid job with the interiors here. I will say please utilise backgrounds in all the panels, this is space, there’s technology and ships and all kinds of things that can be used to showcase how far or little mankind has progressed why because when they are used the are utterly spectacular! I do like that we are seeing these outfits as both uniforms with that pirate flair so they have give off a nice feel. The eye-patch a tad cliché but whatcha gonna go? The use of page layouts through how we see the angles and perspective are wonderfully done. I like the linework as well and the weight of it and how it looks on the page. This does a have a great look to it and I am very much enjoying this.
So there are a few angles that are working from different folks, though only one of them remains beyond the veil for us. I like and I’m enjoying how I see them eventually converging so that it creates a huge problem for Sable and her crew. This goes along with the characterisation here as well as it feels like part of the story as if the two were intrinsically connected. The level of writing here is an extreme jump in quality from what Joe normally delivers. I didn’t get lost reading this once and it was easy to follow and there really is something here that I wasn’t expecting.
Okay that two page spread was completely and utterly incredible to see. It was creative, different and unexpected but it also made the moment the characters were in a viable and immense threat. Again the set-up here is extremely well done and it makes me wonder how much assistance Joe had in writing this. Well with a classic style cliffhanger ending this was a very worthwhile read and continues to build and maintain my faith in the way the future of Zenescope is seen.