Comics based on tv shows or movies tend to start with a handicap. For starters, even the most talented comic artist seems to have trouble drawing actual people, and worse, keeping them consistent. If you've ever seen one of the X-Files comics, you can probably understand what I mean. The second problem is shared with tie-in novels, that they have to try to tell stories in the same world, even though the original creators did not. Both of these challenges make licensed comics a crapshoot.
In issues #0 and #1, Battlestar Galactica from Dynamite Entertainment rolled a hard eight.
To handle the problem normally faced with the art, Nigel Raynor makes the characters recognizeable, consistent, and not terrible identical to the actors and actresses they are meant to line up with. After exactly one page, a reader who is used to the look of the tv show can get used to picking hte characters out, and a new reader will have no problems at all. I think that was a pretty good decision, and the art and the colors stand up well with it.
Second, this first choice of stories is inspired. Set in an important time in the series (before Ro Laren shows up, but after they get back from Kobol) it begins to tell a story of an indidious Cylon plot that threatens to kill all of them. While we, the reader, know how it's going to turn out, they picked a story that will have lasting effects on the characters, and could actually have meaning in the greater universe.
On top of that, I think that Pak does a solid job of getting the tone and voice of the characters right. Kara Thrace is faced with seeing her (long dead) boyfriend, Dualla hears from her definately dead brother, and it's highly unclear if the dead even know that they are dead. This whole issue is set up for the battle to come in later issues, but it doesn't feel that way -- plenty goes on, and the reader is thrown right into the action. There's enough intro material for readers new to BSG (as well as some mysteries left for later) but it's not so much that a BSG vet will get bored with it.
If I have a concern, it would be that this title is setting itself up not to be a contiguous story, but a series of arcs that fit into the existing plot lines. "This story occurs between episodes 2 and 7, This story occurs between episode 4 and 14" etc. I appreciate and understand the need for such a thing, and it does give the creative team a lot of flexibility, but I'd like to see a true ongoing, if such a thing were possible. At least in the times when the show isn't running for us to watch :) |
