Broken Frontier

This is BOOM!’s best title, bar none. Setting any story in a cramped international space station for its entirety in any medium is a risky idea. That’s especially true in the bold, epic nature of comics. However, like Hitchcock at his best, writer Johanna Stokes and penciller Leno Carvalho weave a deft tale by skilfully focusing on a diverse cast of characters and their increasingly taut interactions with one another.

If you’re a newcomer to this title, the premise is a simple one. Cosmonaut Nicolay Morozov was performing a routine repair on a solar panel, when he drifted away and became engulfed by the nothingness. Issue one’s depiction of this event has to be this year’s best murder on the printed page in its eerie effectiveness. Crew member Karen James realises that this was no accident, upon discovering some tampered with equipment, and last issue everyone else found out too. If that wasn’t enough, there was also a strange fire on board, damaged life support and communication systems and an increasing sense of desperation amongst the seven crew left. Now, things get really interesting.

Civilian Dyson is the only outsider, a mathematician to be exact, and unfortunately for him, he’s also the most likely culprit, as the rets of the team have devoted years of heir life for their country and by their reasoning are unlikely to resort to murder. The only one who appears to be on side is Karen. She also seems to be the only one with a level head in the dire situation, as finger pointing reigns supreme. Their accusations are cut short however by a miscalculation in oxygen levels, which leads to one more horrible death (exploding lungs) and a strange act of either desperation or madness from one of the crew in the final pages. All this means things aren’t looking too sunny for the space faring crew. They are alone with no obvious way to safety, and it appears one of them is adding more bodies to his, or her, tally.

BOOM! are becoming dangerously close to developing a house style, and that’s something they can’t afford to do as a new publisher. Most of their books have a sketchy realism to them, but diversity is the key to reaching a new audience. With Station however, Carvalho’s style works superbly. Conveying weightlessness with grace and leaving almost no blank space on the page means that it really does feel like a cramped space station, and his details on facial expressions and technical gear pays off.  In a lesser artist’s hands, this could easily become a series of talking heads, but Carvalho is able to use effective pacing to bring across the stark mood. With a style matching Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice, Carvalho may have a bright future indeed. Just look at the cover if you need proof.

Station is a great place to start for those who like a little suspense in their funny books, or fans of films like Alien and the more recent Sunshine .