Ordinary prequel alert
James S.A. Corey, Hallie Lambert, Georgia Lee
Huang Danlan, Triona Farrell Boom! Studios JUST in time for Season Tw o of The Expanse – Syfy’s gritty adaptation of James S.A. Corey’s bestselling science fiction series – comes this somew hat drab tie-in prequel miniseries.
For those w ho haven’t been caught up in Expanse fever yet, the series is set in a future w here mankind has colonised most of the Solar System, though interstellar travel is not yet a reality.
As usual, people just can’t get along. The Earth-based United Nations Government, the Martian Government and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) are at each other’s throats and the w hole system is ready to explode into w ar.
The series follow s the crew of the hijacked/salvaged Martian gunship Rocinante as they investigate a (really) w ide-ranging conspiracy that could just spark off that w ar, or something even w orse.
This comics miniseries (issue #1 w as just released) w ill look into the backstories of the Rocinante crew members, beginning w ith its captain Jim Holden in the debut issue.
Unfortunately, this “origin” just can’t hold a candle to the intense and surprising developments on the show ’s first season. The comic follow s Holden’s brief tour as a junior officer on board the Earth ship UNN Zheng Fei and is a strictly formulaic tale of the headstrong, insubordinate-on-principle young recruit that w e’ve seen in countless settings and media.
By the end of the first issue, w e get precious little new info about the character – nothing that w e
Better together: To say the central couple of Jonathan Hickman’s futuristic Western sci-fi series has a complicated relationship w ould be an understatement. Death met Xiaoling on the battlefield, and fell so madly in love w ith her that he not only abandoned his duties as one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but also fathered a son w ith her. The boy is kidnapped and trained by the remaining Horsemen – War, Conquest and Famine – to become the “Beast Of The Apocalypse”. Phew ! Yorick Brown and Agent 355 (
The Last Man) Y:
He: Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand are literally the last males on Earth, after a mysterious event w ipes out every single living thing w ith a Y-chromosone on the planet.
She: Yorick’s badass bodyguard, tasked w ith protecting him from himself/death/homicidal female men-hunters.
Better together: One of tw o Brian K. Vaughan-created couples in this list, Yorick and Agent 355 start out having a great love-hate chemistry that made you w ish they w ould end up together. When they finally did confess their love for one another, you couldn’t help but cheer. It’s just too bad the payoff came w ith such a tragic ending... couldn’t glean from Holden’s actions on the series, or the moments w hen assorted characters w ent around digging into his past.
With art that’s as uninspired as the w riting, this really does smack more of cash-in than a proper tiein.
It’s surprising that this comic is so mediocre, considering the story credit given to series creator Corey Marko and Alana (
He: A native of Wreath, the moon of the planet Landfall, w ith w hom they are engaged in an endless conflict. Has horns.
She: A native of Landfall, w hich is engaged in an endless conflict w ith Wreath. Has w ings.
Better together: There are many reasons Vaughan’s Saga is currently one of the most critically acclaimed ongoing series right now , but none are more crucial than its central couple. The fact that they are lovers from opposite sides of a bloody conflict already gives this relationship a moving star-crossed Romeo and Juliet vibe; w hile it’s also compelling to see the lengths to w hich they go in order to protect their child (the narrator, Hazel) and keep the family together despite being pursued by bounty hunters, TV-headed aliens, and deadly ex-w ives.
Saga)
Alex and Ada (
He: A lonely guy w hose aunt, w orried about the state of his mind after being dumped by his girlfriend, gifts him a human-like android to be his live-in partner.
She: A state-of-the-art Tanaka X-5 android capable of intelligent human interaction, w ho is given the gift of free thought by Alex
Alex + Ada)
(actually a pen name for tw o authors, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
According to reports, The Expanse series could be set in the same universe as The Martian, because one Mars ship is know n as the Mark W atney. Too bad no one tried to “science the sh*t” out of w riting a w orthy prequel.
Arul
– Davin
(w ho obviously did not think it through enough).
Better together: Sure, the 15-issue Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and artist Sarah Vaughn is not exactly be a household name w hen it comes to comic-book titles, but the series manages to be both a gripping science fiction tale and a romantic love story at the same time. While the w hole man/ android love affair story has been told before, Luna gives Alex and Ada’s romance a certain vulnerability that is both endearing and tragic at the same time.
Jesse Cutter and Tulip O’Hare (
Preacher)
He: A preacher w ith the ability to speak w ith “the w ord of God”, w hich compels people to obey him.
She: Jesse’s ex-girlfriend w ho, dow n on her luck, becomes the w orld’s most incompetent hitman.
Better together: Garth Ennis’ seminal series is infamously memorable for a lot of things (many of w hich are pretty violent, gory and darn controversial), but one of the most enduring exchanges of the entire series comes in the final issue, w hen Jesse rides up to Tulip’s car on a horse and tearfully tells her to “take my hand and I sw ear I’ll love you ‘til the goddamn stars go out”, before they ride off together into the sunset.