Action, horror, and space marines? Yes, please!
Creative Staff:
Writer: Jody Houser
Art: Gabriel Guzman
Colors: Michael Atiyeh
Letters: Steve Dutro
What they say:
A group of Terran space scavengers are ambushed by an invisible, deadly stalker–and then by aggressive Dominion forces out to ruin their salvage operation! Writer Jody Houser (Orphan Black, Faith) and artist Gabriel Guzman (Star Wars, Mass Effect) join forces for an exciting new sci-fi series that expands the universe of Blizzard’s hit game.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I can remember my first time playing the RTS StarCraft. A roommate of mine introduced me, and I was amazed at the depth and breadth of a pc game. In the years that followed, I haven’t played the sequel or any of the StarCraft related spin-offs. However, I jumped at the chance to get back into the universe and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.
In the opening panels of this issue, our group of scavengers is in a stand-off with a group of Terran Marines. As the Terran’s threaten the group, an errant shot is fired, and chaos ensues. Jody Houser does a great job of keeping the action going, despite having large chunks of exposition. The action scenes created by her are more akin to the old west than the future, but they hold up just the same. After the scavengers surrender to the Terrans, things get creepy. Searching the archives, they discover the Protoss used the abandoned ship for a sole purpose, to house a Dark Templar. The Templar has been set free and is killing everyone who boards the mysterious derelict vessel. After a member of the scavengers turns on the group, they escape from a lock hold and attempt to flee the derelict, in favor of their ship. However, the Terran leader has no such plans and destroys the scavengers ship.
In Summary:
I was curious as to how much of the story I would understand. When you come in on the penultimate issue of a series, you have questions. What I found was Houser’s writing, paired with the tight line work of Gabriel Guzman, made the universe work that much better. Michael Atiyeh did an exemplary job of coloring the book, and it brought all the other elements together to make for an exciting book.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse
Release Date: September 26th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
