“Huh, my dad’s last name is Sanders. No relation.”
Following the release of Mass Effect 3 in 2012, Dark Horse and BioWare published “Homeworlds,” four one-shots spotlighting some of Commander Shepard’s squadmates in the game, including Liara (again), and beefcake soldier James Vega. The series marked the first (and so far, only) appearances outside the games for the beloved turian vigilante Garrus Vakarian, and quarian “princess” Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, as well as the first time any of BioWare’s writers (aside from Mac Walters) contributed to the comics.
Written by Jeremy Barlow, John Dombrow, Mac Walters, Patrick Weekes, Sylvia FeketekutyCover by Anthony Palumbo
Art by Chris Staggs, Eduardo Francisco, Garry Brown, Omar Francia
Colored by Michael Atiyeh
Lettered by Michael HeislerThese four essential stories from Walters and the writers of Mass Effect 3 star characters central to BioWare’s latest epic, including James Vega, Tali, Garrus, and Liara, in adventures that reveal their unbreakable connections to their homeworlds! Collects Mass Effect: Homeworlds #1–#4.
Issue #1 by Walters and Eduardo Francisco:
Voiced by former teen movie heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr., human newcomer James Vega proved to be one of Mass Effect 3’s biggest and best surprises: despite his brutish appearance, he turned out to be a surprisingly soulful protégé for Shepard. His comic largely takes place during his late adolescence, before he joined the military, and introduces us to his sleazy father Joshua Sanders, as well as his caring uncle Emilio Vega. It sees James visiting his dad and being asked to pick up a package for him, which — after a lengthy pursuit from the cops — turns out to be drugs. Sanders reveals he knows his son is planning to enlist, and set him up so he could report him if he proceeds, but Emilio intervenes to ensure that doesn’t happen.
It’s a poignant coming-of-age story despite being mostly an extended chase scene, thanks to Emilio’s explanation of how Joshua only has power over James if he allows him to, and an emotional framing device set during the third game, where Vega checks whether Emilio or Joshua have found refuge from the Reaper invasion with Citadel port authorities. It should leave many readers wistful over the unresolved relationships in their own lives, and how a major crisis can (or should) make everyone better people, even if that is sadly not often the case. Mass Effect 3 felt particularly pertinent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that sense of hoping that as many people as possible will be fine can be found here.
Francisco’s art is superb, balancing the realism of the games’ designs with a cartoony exuberance, and Atiyeh’s coloring really shines adjusting to his linework, with supple tones that come across like a Blade Runner comic painted by Daniel Acuña. The art team and Walters must’ve had a lot of fun imagining what Earth is like in the 22nd century, and the police chase is peppered with lots of worldbuilding and unique props, like James seeing two chefs debating whether customers can tell meat is grown in a tube or not, and hiding in a surprisingly familiar fast food restaurant. They could’ve solely focused on the action, but they didn’t, and that’s great.
Issue #2 by Walters, Weekes, Barlow, Staggs, and co-inker Marc Deering:
Tali’Zorah’s spotlight, devised by Walters and Patrick Weekes, and scripted by Jeremy Barlow, tells her story before Shepard found her on the Citadel in the first game, when she was being hunted for the recording that proved Saren was behind the geth attack on Eden Prime. We follow her and other young quarians on their Rumspringa-esque pilgrimage, from their fateful encounter with the geth on a backwater world, to Illium, and the Citadel, all while being pursued by Saren’s assassins.
It’s a pretty rushed story, which might’ve been better served as a miniseries, since we barely get to know Tali’s fellow pilgrims before they (unsurprisingly) die. This hasty feeling is contributed to by Chris Staggs’s art, which is the most cartoonish and simple in the comics to date: his cavalier approach to the established shapes and sizes of the different races in the galaxy is pretty distracting, but the biggest problem is how we can’t see the outlines of the quarians’ faces through their masks. Without Liz Sroka’s voiceover, Tali is a pair of eyes peering through a face shield, and the absence of even that completely shuts off any emotional connection to her: she and the other quarians just come across as a bunch of stickmen.
Continued belowThe script compensates a little thanks to the framing device of a recording from Tali’s father, Admiral Rael’Zorah, wishing her the best of luck, and expressing hope she’ll do her people proud. It closes on a montage of the major events of the trilogy, which for once, ignores the possibility of a character possibly dying in the games to show Tali standing on “the homeworld [she] hope[s] to see one day.” And it’s there we see Staggs really fleshes out his rendition of her: namely, with her butt. I know her hips are a meme among the fans, but c’mon!
Issue #3 by Walters, Dombrow, Barlow and Brown:
Conceived by Walters and Dombrow, with a script by Jeremy Barlow and art by Garry Brown, Garrus Vakarian’s issue explores the turian Citadel Security agent’s history leading into the second game, when Shepard discovered he had become the vigilante Archangel on Omega. Brown’s art is pretty scratchy, but gritty and game accurate, flawlessly reflecting Garrus’s grim outlook and story, even if his tendency to not outline eye pupils on humans is a bit odd. Atiyeh’s backgrounds follow suit, bristling with outlines of kinetic energy.
We get flashbacks to Garrus’s childhood, learning to shoot from his dad, and a hospital visit to his mother that foreshadows her implied passing, before moving into the events between the first and second games, when he assembled his own team, got betrayed, and cornered by Omega’s many angry mercs until Shepard came to his rescue. Speaking of the Commander, the issue completely skips over Garrus’s involvement in Mass Effect 1 because — believe it or not — it’s possible not to recruit him, and it reads as if Garrus only quit C-Sec because of the Reaper attack at the end of the game.
The absence of any acknowledgment from Garrus of the impact Shepard had on him is sorely felt, and leaves the comic feeling incomplete. It’s compensated somewhat by the strong emphasis on how Garrus’s fraught relationship with his dad shaped him into the dutiful, faithful sidekick many of us know and love, and the fact Garrus narrates his own story, meaning the memory of Brandon Keener’s charismatic performance in the games will keep fans engaged throughout. And who knows: perhaps non-gamers will agree Garrus is incredibly cool after reading this too, and understand just why he’s been dubbed the Batman of Omega.
Issue #4 by Walters, Sylvia Feketekuty, Barlow and Francia:
Liara’s issue, outlined by Walters and Feketekuty, with Barlow again on script duties and Omar Francia on art, sees her searching for a way to destroy the Reapers before the events of the third game. It’s an action-packed comic, where Liara and her new drell sidekick, Quoyle, find themselves waylaid by Cerberus agents after the Illusive Man’s indoctrination by the Old Machines.
Thematically, this serves as a bookend to “Redemption,” with the older, more experienced Liara having another conversation with the Illusive Man, and calling his bluff after he offers an alliance. It also marks the only appearance from the hanar’s oceanic homeworld Kahje, which looks like the artificial islands of Dubai on steroids, and a submersible (which is a tweaked Hammerhead from Mass Effect 2).
However, despite these cool moments, the comic falls flat as Francia’s digitally posed, post-“Invasion” artwork looks utterly stiff, with little sense of depth, and black shadows that make the fights look like a tangled mess of limbs. (Also, Liara’s “eyebrows” were overlooked in the first half, which is off-putting.) Between Francia’s art, and Liara’s generally bland nature, you can’t say this series ended on the strongest note. Oh well: Liara already had a whole miniseries for herself anyway.
Next week: we begin looking at how “Mass Effect: Foundation” tweaked the “Homeworlds” formula.
