Broken Frontier

When BOOM! Studios revealed it was launching a Farscape comic in 2009, the result could have been disastrous like many other licensed products turned into comic books (G.I. Joe and various professional wrestling comics spring to mind).  But, when BOOM! let fans know that series creator Rockne S. O'Bannon would be writing the stories, fears subsided. 

Now, BOOM! is releasing the first spin-off series, Farscape: Scorpius, which is written by acclaimed science fiction novelist David Alan Mack in collaboration with O'Bannon on the stories, and focusing attention on the series' leading antagonist.

Following issue #0 and the fallout of the main Farscape title where Scorpius has lost the favor of the new Hynerian leader and has been cast into space in a prison ship, this first issue picks up with the half-Scarran, half-Sebacean exiled on a distant ice planet and encountering a race of aliens known as the Grennij.  Feeling no sense of purpose in the wake of the treaty between the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans, Scorpius is completely lost and trapped in a series of mental flashbacks to his tutelage under the Scarran equivalent of Darkseid's Granny Goodness, Tauza, as he attempts to reconcile himself with his new environment.  Having captured the Grennij's captain, Grrior, Scorpius enacts a fiendish plan against him and his crew to regain his lost power and authority, and take vengeance on Crichton, the Scarrans, and all those who have wronged him.

Mack does an excellent job in this first issue of establishing how events in the villain's past shaped and molded the "real time" experiences of Scorpius as he engages the Grennij.  Particularly innovative is how Mack juxtaposes previous betrayals and manipulations against Scorpius' contemporary motives with Grrior.  Scorpius' sinister machinations and Machiavellian orchestration of events is strengthened even further by the darker and edgier designs of artist Mike Ruiz.  Taking the emotional and dramatic aspects of the written story out of the equation, audiences can immediately recognize and appreciate the motivations of each character without reading a single word. 

What is truly fascinating is how Mack utilizes a conversation between Grrior and Scorpius to reveal everything new readers could possibly need to know about the Farscape universe without falling into the trappings of dull narration and plot summary.  Well-paced, succinct and vivid writing, there is not a single weakness in Mack's storyline or plot.

Mack and O'Bannon succeed with Farscape: Scorpius #1 where a lot of other first issues (although technically a second issue because of #0) fail.  Fans of the television show will see and appreciate both the familiar and the new here.  Fans who read the main series will find the story revelations and interplay between Scorpius and other members of the Farscape universe, both past and present, a strong companion to their other monthly purchase.  New readers will, however, have one rather minor lament as this issue demands that they join the ongoing series and, consequently, wait an entire month for the next issue to arrive.