Okay, color me impressed. Doing a comics series of a TV show is a very hard task to undertake, as there are so many things you need to figure out. Where does this fit into the series, where can I find an artist who can make the characters looks correctly, how do I tell stories that will get approved, will my stories of today look silly when another two seasons of the series comes out, etc. For the most part, the comics are an extension of the show in that our affection for the show makes a mediocre comics effort worth our purchase dollars. With three issues down so far, I think that Dynamite is doing a fantastic job of the exact opposite with Battlestar. They've created a series that's every bit as good as "The Best Show on Television" without adapting or borrowing too much from the original.
As I said in a past review, they have solved a bunch of the normal problems with licensed comics extremelly skillfully. The art by Nigel Raynor is really top-notch, even though they seem to have made the decision to not make the characters look like the actors, but instead, look similar enough, and keep them consistent. In this issue, we meet the Six that lives in Baltar's head, and if anything, she's even more attractive than the one in real life, but wearing the same red dress.
The story is also a good one, it's a continuation of last month's plotline. The Galactica is faced with the "returners" a bunch of long-dead friends and family of those who are still alive and living in the fleet. Coinciding with their arrival was the outbreak of a virus, leading the already suspicious command crew to take drastic action. Fearing a Cylon plot, they attempt to round up, quarantine, and (probably) destroy all the returners. At odds with this are the religious fanatics, who see this as a sign, in fulfillment of prophecies foretold. They decide to fight back. Finally, we're given some touching moments of people dealing with seeing their dead loved ones again, trying to settle old business, or asking forgiveness.
Pak walks this tightrope perfectly, he's got the tone of the show down, and everything falls right where it should, even given the limitations of the 22-page format. We probably do see more of Zak Adama in this arc than we did in the entire 2+ seasons of show to date, but that's part of the point, to fill in stories we didn't get on television. If you're a fan of BSG (and if you aren't, you should be,) then this is a fantastic read. If you're just a fan of the genre, you'll like this too, as the story trancends the Battlestar mythos, and will grip you like few Sci-Fi on the market today will.
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