Space Riders Galaxy of Brutality #1 Featured Reviews 

“Space Riders: Galaxy Of Brutality” #1

By | March 30th, 2017
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

The psychedelic cosmic adventure continues in the sequel to last year’s wildly successful mini-series. Read on to find out if it’s worth your time in our review, which contains minor spoilers

Created by Alexis Ziritt and Fabian Rangel Jr.
Written by Fabian Rangel Jr
Illustrated by Alexis Ziritt
Lettered by Ryan Ferrier

An ancient evil is gathering power throughout the cosmos, and it falls upon the legendary SPACE RIDERS to kick its a**! Having disbanded, the crew of CAPTAIN PELIGRO, MONO, and YARA must reunite for what may be their final ride! The cult comic that electrified comic readers in the brain RETURNS to blast your fragile human psyche into oblivion!!

There’s nothing else quite like “Space Riders.” People will draw the inevitable comparisons to Jack Kirby, especially his ‘Fourth World’ work for DC, and that’s fair. The vibrant cosmic landscapes and the outlandishly imaginative concepts that get used for mere panels before being dropped for the next idea are all instantly reminiscent of The King. People may also make comparisons to Tom Scioli’s work, itself influenced heavily by Kirby. His web series “American Barbarian” uses the same straight-faced machismo to accentuate the absurd. There’s also hints of Kyle Starks’ humor, Capitan Peligro occupying the same 80’s-action-movie-viewed-through-a-funhouse-mirror space as Shane Sexcastle. Yet reading through “Galaxy of Brutality” #1 you realize that this is a series that is fiercely independent and stubbornly original.

You don’t need to go back to last year’s four issue mini-series in order to jump on board with “Galaxy of Brutality,” (although you’d be missing out on a truly fantastic series) there’s plenty of chance to get to know the now disbanded crew of the Santa Muerte as they are reintroduced throughout this issue. There are callbacks to the first series that reward returning fans, but everything is so fully realized here that new readers have ample opportunity to follow along. If there was any doubt as to what you were getting into, page two is a full page spread of the Skullship – which is exactly what it sounds like – with smoking laser eyes, facing the reader square on, surrounded by the electrifying backdrop of Ziritt’s cosmos. This is the first statement piece of the issue, destined to become a poster on the walls of student dorms, longing to be stared at by the bloodshot eyes of a chemically expanded mind.

The action is frenetic; unrelenting, but never rushed. There are more unique creations in a single page of “Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality” than in most issues, and yet each is given the spotlight before being moved on to the next. Ziritt’s explosively complex pages employ bold, neon colors that take a running jump at your face, and reinforce the constant energy of a punk zine from the 80’s. The next stand-out page comes a little later when Mono is confronted by the vision of an elephantine monk, instructing him to return to the Tomb of the Fallen God. Ziritt and Ferrier incorporate the lettering into the art itself, the background colors bleeding into the oversized speech bubbles and the scratchy, turbulent font adding to the trippy vision sequence.

The Viker (space-biker) gang that combines, Voltron-style, into a super robot; mutant Limbo-harpies; the gargantuan Tormenta Cosmica. These are the concepts that Rangel Jr throws at the reader, each more bombastic than the last, each more all-encompassing on the page thanks to Ziritt’s insane art. The Tormenta Cosmica is especially mind-blowing. Not fully explained (its name evoking enough within you to render any further exposition pointless), it rips through the character of Peligro in an awe-inspiring double page spread – the only one in the issue. The Capitan’s body, awash with neon yellow and orange, is dragged to Limbo through 9 diminishing versions of his form, each getting smaller as you move across the page. At the same time, the background illustrates the multiple layers of dimensional subspace as Peligro disappears into Limbo, each kaleidoscopic section becoming more and more abstract until on the right of the page there is only blackness dotted with geometric shapes. It’s a scene that gives you genuine pause when you first see it, and you can’t help but spend time just taking it all in. The truth of “Space Riders” is that every page feels like that.

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There’s some genuine character development here too. The original “Space Riders” threw so much at the wall that “Galaxy of Brutality” has a wealth of plot threads to pick up. Mono, the anthropomorphic Mandrill First-Mate arguably gets the most, as by the end of the issue his situation is drastically altered. There are scenes, however, that progress all three of the main leads in ways that prove there’s more to this series than mind-altering visuals. There’s also a final page cliffhanger that reintroduces a character from the original run which can only lead to a fun dynamic moving forward.

“Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality” #1 hits you like a psychedelic freight train, with hyped-up Kirby concepts that blow your mind with the turn of every page. It’s visual thrash metal; it’s sequential poster art from underground punk shows; it’s a hallucinogenic cosmic odyssey that fights dirty and always shoots first. It’s loud, it’s frantic, it’s wildly inventive. What’s more: it’s completely unmissable.

Final Verdict: 8.9 – With gorgeous, mind-melting frenzy, “Space Riders” returns and it’s more manic, more psychedelic, more badass than ever. Welcome back, Mon Capitan.


Matt Lune

Born and raised in Birmingham, England, when Matt's not reading comics he's writing about them and hosting podcasts about them. From reading The Beano and The Dandy as a child, he first discovered American comics with Marvel's Heroes Reborn and, despite that questionable start, still fell in love and has never looked back. You can find him on Twitter @MattLune

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