The final five issues of Dark Horse’s “Mass Effect: Foundation” spotlights more Mass Effect 2 squadmates, concludes the story of Rasa leading into Mass Effect 3: Citadel, and brings back Jeremy Barlow (“Homeworlds“) to co-write and script the last three chapters.
Written by Jeremy Barlow, Mac WaltersCover by Benjamin Carré
Art by Tony Parker
Colored by Michael Atiyeh
Lettered by Michael HeislerFollow scientist and secret agent Mordin Solus as he decides the fate of a species. Watch master thief Kasumi Goto lose the love of her life. Witness mercenary Zaeed Massani take down an entire ship. Learn the truth about assassin Thane Krios’s tragic fall from grace. And finally, discover what the mysterious and powerful Illusive Man had to do with it all! Collects Mass Effect: Foundation #9–#13.
Issue #9: This chapter depicts salarian scientist Mordin Solus’s mission with the Special Tasks Group to reinforce the genophage — the infertility plague his people infected the krogan with to end their uprising centuries ago — after the krogan began developing a resistance to it. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed comic, that emphasizes the taskforce’s fraught planning of the mission to Tuchanka (the krogan homeworld), and the battle with the krogan they encounter where they need to disperse the disease.
You won’t find more insight into Mordin’s character here than in the games: this is a comic about salarians fighting krogan, and if you just want to see a younger Mordin kill one with a flaming omni-blade after jumping on his back, or a female krogan shaman wield a hammer, then it’s basically perfect. Parker’s art benefits greatly from the lack of human faces, and the planning montage at the start is cleverly conveyed with panel borders based on the computers from the games, as if we’re watching recordings on Rasa’s tablet.
Parker’s skills with landscapes and textures also do a great job of conveying the radioactive, ash-strewn nature of the ruined krogan homeworld. There’s an especially haunting panel of a fallen krogan statue resembling the Sphinx and the “face on Mars,” which truly conveys how enormous a loss the collapse of their civilization was. Like the salarians’ mission, this chapter is a quick and effective read that gets the job done.
Issue #10: This depicts the circumstances surrounding the death of Keiji Okuda, the boyfriend and partner-in-crime of human thief Kasumi Goto. Some of Parker’s best art is featured during a sequence where the couple high-altitude jump to their fateful heist, where the skyline on the planet Bekenstein genuinely looks huge and endless, as if you could fall forever, crafting a sense of bliss and serenity that strengthens the impact of Keiji’s subsequent murder. Kasumi’s character design — which obscures her eyes with the shadow of her hood — also helps avoid Parker avoid his usual weaknesses: the only snag here is that Atiyeh’s coloring for her tactical cloak resembles biotic light instead of photographic technology. In summary, it’s a bittersweetly beautiful piece of backstory for Ms. Goto.
Issue #11: Co-writer Jeremy Barlow came aboard for this chapter, starring grizzled human mercenary Zaeed Massani, and his presence is immediately felt thanks to the framing device of Zaeed sharing his story at a bar on Omega. It’s a smart decision: half of Zaeed’s entertainment value came from his voice actor, the late Robin Sachs, reading every line with a gruff, cockney snarl (the last accent you expect to hear in space), and it’s impossible not to imagine him having one last hurrah.
The other great quality of Zaeed was the incredulous tone with which he discussed everything, and this comic — about a mission that went south in every way, except for the fact the old man succeeded in finishing his objective — should leave you reciprocating his big, smug grin at the end. Parker’s faces remain wonky at times, especially when background characters appear larger than likely intended, but there’s some great panels of dynamic, zero-gravity combat, full of bodies flowing in motion, and Atiyeh’s coloring glows with explosive energy. To quote Zaeed, it’s “goddamn satisfying.”
Continued belowIssue #12: Drell assassin Thane Krios takes center stage here, narrating his personal history via a recording of an interview with Cerberus. Thane’s life was recounted so extensively in ME2 that (like Kaidan’s issue) it feels merely like an illustration of his history, but the tragic love story of Thane and his wife Irikah is so heartfelt that it doesn’t matter. It certainly brings back fond memories of actor Keythe Farley’s croaky yet soothing voiceover, further enhancing its emotional poignancy.
The one disappointment comes in the depiction of how Thane met his wife: his vivid description of their first encounter in the games always made me imagine her jumping in front of his target, and shielding his body, while screaming “How dare you!” Here, Irikah merely stands in front of Thane’s laser rangefinder, and places her hands on her hips, while scolding him: it’s a curious and underwhelming creative decision. (Also, strangely, Thane’s son Kolyat is colored yellow rather than blue, but like human hair, perhaps drell skin tones change as they mature.)
Issue #13: Rasa’s story concludes with her deciding she’s had enough of her desk job, and going freelance by stealing Commander Shepard’s clone (still growing inside the ME universe’s version of a bacta tank), which unsurprisingly causes a lot of gunfire to be exchanged with Miranda and her guards (human and robotic). There’s a lot of action, but between the white corridors, white uniforms, white mechs, and the white highlights and reflections everywhere, the pages feel like they consist more of the space between panels than the artwork. (Parker’s difficulty distinguishing his human female characters also proves disadvantageous here, especially after the sprinklers force Miranda to pull back her hair.)
There’s two memorable moments: first, Rasa reprograms a security mech to help her take the clone, and its sacrifice proves to be an unexpectedly touching extension of the games’ exploration of A.I. consciousness. The second is Rasa taunting Miranda over why a woman as intelligent as her is so loyal to the Illusive Man: it should be pointed out that a) the games revealed Cerberus protected Miranda and her sister from their possessive father, and b) “Foundation” retcons Miranda’s comment in the Citadel DLC that she barely knew “Brooks” — reading between the lines, a fan might deduce that she became ashamed that Rasa saw her as her captor, and was too embarrassed to admit the role she played in her past.
Anyway, Miri refuses to explain her devotion to Cerberus, simply responding that Rasa can’t imagine what she’s been through, to make a point that a traumatic life is no excuse for shooting and killing former colleagues. It’s a reminder that Rasa was a protagonist you couldn’t feel too much sympathy for, and why “Foundation” ultimately felt less than the sum of its parts. It was a fun opportunity to see so many supporting characters outside of Shepard’s story, but it’s a shame that it didn’t continue past Rasa’s narrative, and spotlight the remaining squadmates who didn’t appear (namely Samara, Legion, and EDI), or elaborate further on Wrex, Miranda, Jacob, Jack, Mordin et al.’s past adventures. (It’s also disappointing more artists didn’t contribute to the series.)
Next week, we’ll look at the sole Mass Effect: Andromeda comic, “Discovery.”
