The war is over. The aliens won and they’ve been here for 300 years. But what happens when they up and leave and humanity has to pick itself up and carry on? This is the question Alex Paknadel and Artyom Trakhanov are asking with “Turncoat” #1, a detective comic disguised as a science fiction comic.
Read on below for our full spoiler free review of the issue below!
Written by Alex Paknadel
Illustrated by Artyom Trakhanov
What’s to Love: Employing the most compelling elements of science fiction and the detective genre, Turncoat is a gripping exploration of power vacuums and the legacy of oppression. Alex Paknadel (Arcadia) and Artyom Trakhanov (Undertow) tell the story of a guilt-ridden protagonist through a grisly quest for a truth. Turncoat will scratch that itch you have for dark sci-fi like Blade Runner, The Forever War, and Neuromancer.
What It Is: 300 years since humanity was brutally subjugated by the alien race known simply as the Management. Two years since these invaders abandoned Earth to return to their home world. Following her participation in the brutal massacre of human-alien hybrids left behind by the Management, resistance fighter Marta Gonzalez declines to join the new human government and starts her own private detective agency instead. Gonzalez is forced to confront her own bloody past and acknowledge the fact that the transition from oppression to emancipation is anything but clean.
These days, science fiction comics are a dime a dozen. They’re everywhere. Even in big superhero comics, you probably can’t go more than a couple issues before some cosmic entity shows up on the main character’s doorstep. It’s pretty much unavoidable at this point. That makes it even harder for sci-fi comics to stand out in the marketplace than it usually is to stand out in the comic book marketplace these what with everyone and their mums putting their own comic books these days. “Turncoat”, then, is a sci-fi comic that isn’t really about the science fiction element. In a lot of ways, Alex Paknadel and Artyom Trakhanov and colourist Jason Wordie have used the science fiction elements as set dressing for what’s really a hard boiled detective fiction the explores governmental oppression and the true price of liberty. It doesn’t namecheck Blade Runner in the solicit for nothing, you know.
What’s probably most impressive about “Turncoat” #1 is the pure density to the worldbuilding going on here. From panel one, we’re dropped into a world stepped in history and instead of holding our hand and laying out the over 300 year long history that story builds upon, Paknadel and Trakhanov instead layer important information into the story itself as the issue progresses, allowing the world to coalesce in our minds as we read. It’s a gutsy move as it makes the initial pages feel pretty daunting to read as you try to work out who is on what side and what exactly is happening, but it creates an effect where the focus is on the characters first and their allegiances open up the history of the world. And with over 30 pages of story here, that gives the issue way more time to explore the characters that it would if the creators took a quarter of that to layout the history all in one go.
As I said, “Turncoat” #1 is more of a hard boiled detective story dressed like a science fiction story and Paknadel and Trakhanov do a great job of fusing the disparate genre conventions here. Marta, our main character, is a retired cop with a dark past and is isolated from many of her former colleagues because of decision that pretty much upended the entire world and is now working as a private detective. I don’t want to make a Jessica Jones comparison because I feel like that might be too obvious, but you can see where I’m going with this. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with hard boiled fiction will see the signposts littered through this landscape of spaceships, fungal skyscrapers and alien hybrids. In a lot of ways, this fusion of the two genres, much like the aforementioned Blade Runner, elevates each aspect as they both feed into other as the story progresses.
Continued belowNow, before we really talk about the art of “Turncoat” #1, I want to preface this by saying that art doesn’t have to be pretty to be effective. It doesn’t have to be the most gorgeous, painterly artwork in the world if that’s not the effect the story is trying to achieve. The world of “Turncoat” is grotesque. The aftermath of a 300 year occupation by a fungal-based species has left Earth in a perpetual state of mould growth. Trakhanov’s heavily inked style creates the feeling that the world is just oppressive to exist in. Panels are filled with details that genuinely horrific to consider with every odd surface seemingly covered in a slim of some sort. Trakhanov’s linework is loose yet intricate, creating a heavily shaded interpretation of the world through layers upon layers of scratchy inkwork. It’s a style that’s gorgeous in its own right with a lot of European influence in style while creating a world that is actually really gross.
Trakhanov’s linework is brought to sickly life with colours by Jason Wordie who infuses a earthhewn palette of natural browns and oranges with otherworldly greens and pinks, juxtaposing the naturalistic colouring with highlights that really emphasise just how alien the Earth has become. It’s honestly gorgeous colouring and brings a lot of vibrancy to Trakhanov’s heavily inked pages and capturing the violent disrepair much of human society has been left in while highlighting the beauty of what nature has been left untouched during a sequence in central park. If nothing else, “Turncoat” #1 is a comic that should be noted for how gorgeous its artwork is.
All in all, “Turncoat” #1 was pleasant surprise. Going into it, it was hard to see how it could remain fresh and unique in a sea of sci-fi comics on the market today, but by infusing the science fiction conventions of the backstory with the plot’s noir aesthetic, Paknadel, Trakhanov and Wordie have created a story that feels genuinely engaging and while it’s not something we’ve never seen before, it tells its story so well that doesn’t matter. As the first issue in a four issue miniseries, this is a pretty strong debut of a comic that should definitely be on your radar if you like science fiction.
Final Verdict: 7.6 – Definitely one to check if you’re hankering for new sci-fi that doesn’t feel like every other sci-fi book out there.
