Upon discovering the dark truths of her heritage January Lee continues her mission to make some sense of her new life, but things will not be easy for her. Some Spoilers Ahead.
Cover by Milos Slavkovic & Dave StewartWritten by Miloš Slavkovic & Mirko Topalski
Illustrated & Colored by Miloš Slavkovic
Lettered by Andrej BunjacOriginality and depth is something that can be hard to find in new science fiction. Many comic books align to closely to what inspired their creation rather than moving forward with new ideas. To have a comic book mini-series that is a spin-off to an as-yet-unreleased video game successfully backed on Kickstarter end up being fascinating, beautiful and original is nearly unheard of. The second chapter ‘Jazzman’ continues the streak started with issue one.
The starship ‘Arsonaut’ piloted by a ‘radio pirate’ with the moniker Jazzman is in search of radio signals. He and his crewman Colony Sixty Six search for signals, specifically jazz music soaring through space from 1930s Earth. Now, thousands of years after humans migrated from Earth and colonized other planets an entire market for old radio recordings has taken hold. Once again, nostalgia takes all. Attempting to keep on track of an elusive tune they recklessly travel through radiation and an asteroid field to stay on top of it. Making their way through, they discover a small shuttle adrift in deep space where they find January Lee in cryo-sleep. Upon bringing her aboard and giving her a medical exam, she gets a tour of his ship, an explanation of the work they do, and is almost immediately thrown into a space battle with a rival pirate, the enormous, bug-like, Dada Cumana. More secrets about January’s genetic heritage come to light that will hopefully help them with the coming battle.
Slavkovic and Topalski expand on this world in incredible ways. If it is any indication of the quality of the game, fans will definitely have something to look forward to. It is high concept sci-fi that throws a lot of history, mystery and ideas at the reader; and although we are given a lot of information as the story progresses, it never feels rushed. The pacing for this book has been nothing short of perfect. Characters and concepts are introduced and explained in a fashion that allows for total comprehension without having to dwell and any one thing in particular. The story’s usage of time and space is unlike anything we get in mainstream sci-fi and it really plays with ideas that completely change your understanding of the plot as it moves forward. It never goes too in-depth to become headache inducing, but there are some mind-blowing revelations that are tucked away until just the right moment.
Fantastic ideas like living within a breathable liquid that fills Jazzman’s ship allowing living beings to survive the speeds at which he needs to travel for chasing radio waves and people living on various planets at different speeds depending on where they fall in their empire’s caste system are nice heady concepts without being unclear or talking down to readers that might not be familiar with ideas like this. Just enough detail is given to make the reader happily understand and the plot progresses. I applaud their talent for it. Right now the weakest element is probably our heroine, January. Her characterization is not as deep as the events surrounding her. It is likely that she is meant to feel almost as lost or as new to things as the reader, but having lived in this universe her whole life she shouldn’t be as much of a proxy for us as she comes off. While her royal status would probably serve for some of her naivety, but she isn’t supposed to be as clueless as she comes off in certain moments.
Slavkovic also takes on the task of illustrating and coloring the series. What he has produced for this book is nothing short of, ahem, stellar. His ship and character design have a purposeful fluidity to them that is a nice callback to the fluid use of time and even the fluid that fills the Arsonaut’s corridors. The lines that make up his work are solid, yet have a movement like Peter Chung’s animation from Aeon Flux. Highly detailed without becoming to mechanical, his style works in both worlds of science fiction and fantasy. His color work matches this motif. Each panel is like a beautiful oil painting where colors and lines ebb and flow, and blend to create colorful galaxies within themselves.
If “Lightstep” can maintain its, thus far, perfect balance of outstanding world building, unique storytelling and quality of art, it stands to be in line with the great space operas like Star Wars and “Saga.” Whether you pick up the single issues or wait for the trade, this is a series sci-fi fans will definitely want to check out. This is one book I ended up being far more pleasantly surprised with than expected. Whether or not this will ultimately work as a complete story is unknown at this time, but for now I have faith that the universe that is being built will give enough of a satisfactory story no matter which entry to the property you choose.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Rich mythology and incredibly beautiful artwork continue to make “Lightstep” a delight in the world of sci-fi and comics.
