Shrapnel 1

[MichaelRoberts]

Title: Shrapnel 1
Publisher Name: Radical Comics
Writer: M. Zachary Sherman
Art: Bagus Hutomo
$1.99, 48 pages, Color

Safety Content Label: PARENTAL ADVISORY - 15 years and older. Similar to T+ but featuring more mature themes and/or more graphic imagery.

Publishers Blurb:
Venus: The last free colony in the system is about to fall. Unbeknownst to the attacking Marine Forces or even the Venusian colonists themselves, one of the most infamous heroines of the war is hiding in exile on their planet, hoping to forget her past as a Marine Officer.

Now, she must organize a revolt against the very Marines she once fought alongside and lead the colonies to independence and freedom.

Shrapnel is the first book of an epic solar war trilogy set on Venus, the Jovian moons, Mars and finally Earth itself.

Reviewer Comments:
This is a great beginning to a sci-fi comic series. I can compare this story and look to a number of reputable sci-fi properties on the market now (Halo, Battlestar Galactica, and Armored Core), but this book pulls together action and character in a combination all of its own. With 48 pages in this first story, the story and the art really breathe, and the reader gets all of the benefit here. We get a strong glimpse into this universe without any mind-numbing info dumps along the way.

Shrapnel has a painted look similar to the Halo comics, and I was a little confused at times during battle sequences. In the smaller panels of action, I wasn’t familiar enough with the machinery to always know what I was looking at in that particular shot. That being said, there are a couple of breathtaking moments where the battle scenes expand before you. You feel the dread of the soldiers stepping out onto those battlefields who realize that many of them will very likely not come back from this.

The main character is very engaging, and this first hints at the difference she will make in the war in the future. But my favorite part of this war story is the way that it gives us all of the essential perspectives of this conflict. We see both the self-assuredness of the invading army commanders and the timid questions of the soldiers who are forced into the fray. On the other side, we see the patriotic defenders of their homes as well as the unsure commanders who hope their armies will be enough to halt the Alliance’s progress. This book keeps you guessing, and you can’t dismiss either side as simply the evil side.

One last thing to say, 48 pages at $1.99 is hard to beat… especially for the quality of this work.