Farscape #1: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning [NO UNRELEASED SPOILERS]
Because impatient Stars is impatient and the Mambo admin panel will not let me log in to post at FMD. So y'all get a sneak peek here until Julie uploads it at watchfarscape.com. :D
ETA: Feel free to link - DO NOT copy & post elsewhere, thank you.
Review: Farscape #1: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning
[NO UNRELEASED SPOILERS]
by Stars
My name is John Crichton. I used to be an astronaut. Four cycles ago - that's what they call "years" in this neck of the woods - I was orbiting Earth in a module I built called Farscape 1. I was trying to test a theory. Then a wormhole opened, which proved a different one. It shot me across the galaxy. I wound up on a living ship called Moya, filled with escaping prisoners.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
And with that poignant, understated introduction, readers and fans of Farscape are launched right back into that familiar universe, almost at the exact moment we left.
Farscape #1, the first of four issues in the initial series to be released by BOOM! Studios (see here for a sneak peek of the upcoming second series), picks up from the closing "circle of life" scene of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, with panels that mimic shots of John Crichton showing his son the wonders of the universe, Aeryn Sun by his side.
But this is Farscape. By the fifth panel - only the second page in - a new menace is revealed, while the Sun-Crichtons, and their extended family aboard the Leviathan Moya, remain blissfully unaware.
We can finally stop running. Nobody's chasing me because I killed their brother, or because I have wormhole knowledge, or because the one-armed man killed my wife. We're done.
We intend to live our lives in peace and raise our son. That's our plan.
Of course, my track record with plans isn't the greatest in the universe...
Ain't that the truth? Farscape #1 drives home the point, serving as what would, in the television series, be the cold open and first act of an action-packed, nail-biter of an episode. And just as Farscape the series wasn't your run-of-the-mill ordinary sci-fi, Farscape the comic isn't the kiddie-style Archie-and-Veronica funny pages of yore.
Like the best modern comics and graphic novels, it's mature and edgy, with blunt talk and sexual situations, but doesn't forget the best Farscape traditions. There is betrayal and intrigue of Shakespearean proportions, as well as the not-so-simple challenges of everyday living in the Uncharted Territories. There is laugh-out-loud humor and snark and snappy banter, and the inevitable inclusion of bodily fluids.
Given the literary talents of Rockne O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido, thoughtful editing by Matt Gagnon, and the artistry of Tommy Patterson and Andrew Dalhouse, the characters are drawn and voiced true to form. Crichton's pop-culture references fly from Rockne O'Bannon's pen to the page as effortlessly as Pilot's formal syntax and Rygel's pomposity.
The characters look as they should, from the highlights in Aeryn's hair to the plum-purple-pinks of deep space and Moya's golden brown skin. Chiana and Noranti have never looked better.
There's a feeling of homey recognition as familiar settings and images appear: Command, Pilot's den, Rygel hovering on his thronesled, Pilot on the clamshell. And some pages' visuals are simply stunning, impressive in a way that would have been bank-breaking CGI if ever attempted for the screen.
Like the series, the comic isn't without a glitch or two, things that make one go hmmm... in a few panels, Aeryn's eyes are inexplicably colored amber, and one now-major character bears a rather startling and slightly disconcerting resemblance to one gone before.
But as a whole, Farscape #1 is everything that made Farscape a cult hit and fan favorite, successfully translated to a new medium. And the truly ominous last panel carries on one final, unforgettable and quintessentially Farscapean tradition: the cliffhanger.
Farscape #1 will be released on December 24, 2008. Order it directly from BOOM! Studios here.
ETA: Feel free to link - DO NOT copy & post elsewhere, thank you.
Review: Farscape #1: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning
[NO UNRELEASED SPOILERS]
by Stars
My name is John Crichton. I used to be an astronaut. Four cycles ago - that's what they call "years" in this neck of the woods - I was orbiting Earth in a module I built called Farscape 1. I was trying to test a theory. Then a wormhole opened, which proved a different one. It shot me across the galaxy. I wound up on a living ship called Moya, filled with escaping prisoners.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
And with that poignant, understated introduction, readers and fans of Farscape are launched right back into that familiar universe, almost at the exact moment we left.
Farscape #1, the first of four issues in the initial series to be released by BOOM! Studios (see here for a sneak peek of the upcoming second series), picks up from the closing "circle of life" scene of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, with panels that mimic shots of John Crichton showing his son the wonders of the universe, Aeryn Sun by his side.
But this is Farscape. By the fifth panel - only the second page in - a new menace is revealed, while the Sun-Crichtons, and their extended family aboard the Leviathan Moya, remain blissfully unaware.
We can finally stop running. Nobody's chasing me because I killed their brother, or because I have wormhole knowledge, or because the one-armed man killed my wife. We're done.
We intend to live our lives in peace and raise our son. That's our plan.
Of course, my track record with plans isn't the greatest in the universe...
Ain't that the truth? Farscape #1 drives home the point, serving as what would, in the television series, be the cold open and first act of an action-packed, nail-biter of an episode. And just as Farscape the series wasn't your run-of-the-mill ordinary sci-fi, Farscape the comic isn't the kiddie-style Archie-and-Veronica funny pages of yore.
Like the best modern comics and graphic novels, it's mature and edgy, with blunt talk and sexual situations, but doesn't forget the best Farscape traditions. There is betrayal and intrigue of Shakespearean proportions, as well as the not-so-simple challenges of everyday living in the Uncharted Territories. There is laugh-out-loud humor and snark and snappy banter, and the inevitable inclusion of bodily fluids.
Given the literary talents of Rockne O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido, thoughtful editing by Matt Gagnon, and the artistry of Tommy Patterson and Andrew Dalhouse, the characters are drawn and voiced true to form. Crichton's pop-culture references fly from Rockne O'Bannon's pen to the page as effortlessly as Pilot's formal syntax and Rygel's pomposity.
The characters look as they should, from the highlights in Aeryn's hair to the plum-purple-pinks of deep space and Moya's golden brown skin. Chiana and Noranti have never looked better.
There's a feeling of homey recognition as familiar settings and images appear: Command, Pilot's den, Rygel hovering on his thronesled, Pilot on the clamshell. And some pages' visuals are simply stunning, impressive in a way that would have been bank-breaking CGI if ever attempted for the screen.
Like the series, the comic isn't without a glitch or two, things that make one go hmmm... in a few panels, Aeryn's eyes are inexplicably colored amber, and one now-major character bears a rather startling and slightly disconcerting resemblance to one gone before.
But as a whole, Farscape #1 is everything that made Farscape a cult hit and fan favorite, successfully translated to a new medium. And the truly ominous last panel carries on one final, unforgettable and quintessentially Farscapean tradition: the cliffhanger.
Farscape #1 will be released on December 24, 2008. Order it directly from BOOM! Studios here.