EXO is shorthand for Exoplanet Explorations, the NASA program concerned with the search for life on other planets, and the program and all the late-20th Century romanticism it conveys, is at the heart of Humanoids’s English translation of this Franco-Belgian graphic novel.
Written by Jerry Frissen
Illustrated by Philippe Scoffoni
Flatted by Vincent Grière
Translated by Mark BenceA hard sci-fi story about the intersection of spatial exploration and earthly invasion. Near future. NASA is confident it finally discovered an exoplanet likely to accommodate life. Located 4 light-years from earth, Darwin II creates a lot of questions and is scheduled for imminent exploration by a space probe. At the same very moment, an orbital space station is struck by a missile shot from the moon, killing several astronauts. Coincidence or conspiracy?
In the 21st Century it seems as though more people are content to look down at their devices rather than look up at the stars. In the early pages of “EXO,” John Koenig, a NASA jet propulsion expert at Cal Tech, holds a press conference where he announces NASA’s plans to send probes to an exoplanet (a planet that orbits another star). The planet has been codenamed Darwin II and could be reached after a forty-year journey. The announcement is met with near derision by the small cadre of press members that have attended the presser. Readers can almost sense the words echoing across the near-empty auditorium. The excitement of space travel isn’t what it used to be.
“EXO” is filled with these type of little details from the creative team of Jerry Frissen and Philippe Scoffoni, and it’s in these details that readers will likely find the most enjoyment. Scoffoni is a meticulous draftsman and his pairing with this intricate story is pitch perfect. Frissen’s inventive script gives ample opportunity for Scoffoni to present human and alien contraptions and organisms, but these aspects take a back seat to the human interactions that drive the story. Without spoiling the plot, something has come to earth and taken control of a small group of humans, sending them on a mission to derail the plans to explore Darwin II. It’s a deceptively simple plot that does lean on some familiar body snatching tropes, but Frissen adds some wrinkles, particularly with Koenig’s character, that opens the door for metaphysical ruminations on the nature of Homo sapiens.
The plot moves back and forth between the Koenig story and a team of commandos sent to investigate a moon site that is believed to be the origin of the thing that landed on Earth. The team is led by a civilian, William Linden, to the dismay of Lieutenant Alvaro Aguilar, a man who has earned a mission command. Interestingly, Frissen flips the typical civilian/military dynamic by making Aguilar the empath who trusts his own judgment over following orders. The moon-based scenes are blue-tinted and beautiful, alternating between rocky vistas and expressive facial renderings reflected in heads-up displays. Throughout the mission and the alien environments depicted, Frissen and Scoffoni never lose touch of the human elements even if some members of the expedition are dispatched before readers can even begin to care about them. The surviving commandos are given just enough development to make them interesting, but nothing more.
While the humanistic aspects of this science fiction story have much to be admired, it can sometimes be a bit flat tonally. Life and death things are happening, but they are often conveyed a bit too clinically to create a ratcheting drama or sense of danger. The dialog which is perfectly fine for the humans that have been commandeered by the alien visitors, can sometimes read a bit clunky as well. Rarely does anyone’s heart rate seem to be approaching elevated levels. Koenig breaks a sweat when slipped some peyote tea by his estranged daughter’s boyfriend, but when faced with throwing the human race back to the stone age, he’s cool as a cucumber and even has time to make a pass at Air Force Commander Deborah Kaminsky, a development that might elicit a brief eye roll. “EXO” is not the first science fiction story to sacrifice expository plot points for nuanced characterization, and it won’t be the last.
Overall, “EXO” is an enjoyable book that gives just enough hard sci-fi detail to warrant the designation. There are no operatic space battles, and the story even seems to go out of its way to avoid militarized combat. In a penultimate scene, the result of a missile launch is not even shown. While Frissen and Scoffoni solve many of the plot’s mysteries there are still many left unsolved by the final page. For instance, how did the aliens know of NASA’s plans to send a probe to Darwin II? The larger unanswered questions left at the end of “EXO” seem to be intentional which makes it read like a love letter not only to the mystery and excitement of space exploration but also to what it signifies, the appeal to the best of our human natures. As Casey Kasem used to say, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”