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Review: Dead Space: Salvage and Dead Space: Liberation
At long last, I have cleared enough space in my busy and penniless schedule to catch up on the Dead Space comics. I have two volumes, Dead Space: Salvage and Dead Space: Liberation, from the good people at Titan Books, so I decided to group them together into one review. They are both companion comics to the Dead Space video game series, taking place around the games. Salvage is a separate tale about a crew of illegal salvagers who come upon the dreaded Ishimura, while Liberation is a prologue comic to this year’s Dead Space 3. Both have their good parts and and their bad, and both are definitely entertaining.
Any big Dead Space fans would probably find a lot to like in these two comics. Fans of intense horror, especially in a futuristic, outer space environment, would also enjoy both books.
Dead Space: Salvage: 4/5: Good.
Dead Space: Liberation: 3/5: Alright.
Salvage and Liberation are two comics that any fans of the Dead Space universe would probably love to have on their shelves. I wish some of my favorite video game franchises produced comics of this quality. Much like the Dead Space graphic novel I reviewed earlier this year, these are great companion pieces for the games, expanding the universe the games inhabit while providing new adventures with new and sometimes familiar characters.
You can find both Dead Space: Salvage and Dead Space: Liberation at Amazon.com.
Join me after the jump for further review!
Review: Dead Space (The Graphic Novel)
The fine people at Titan Books have sent me a new stack of graphic novels, this time based on the Dead Space video game series. I’ve never actually played the games, but I’m more than happy to review good comics when I get them. We’ll start with the collected edition of Dead Space, written by Antony Johnston and drawn by Ben Templesmith. The series was first published as six separate issues in 2008. It’s a prequel to the first game, telling the story of the original Necromorph outbreak on the planet Aegis VII. I can’t say how well it ties into the first game, or what fans of the series might think, but I can say that it’s a pretty cool story, playing out like your typical space monster movie.
Dead Space
If you’re a fan of the Dead Space video game series, I think you’ll enjoy this prequel adventure. Non-fans might enjoy this gripping and claustrophobic monster tale, drawn with some very moody art.
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
This graphic novel plays out exactly like a good old fashioned monster movie, especially one in space. A far-off, isolated space colony discovers something mysterious and alien, it slowly starts to drive people insane and then finally everything explodes in gore, guts and reanimated corpses! That this graphic novel is a prequel instead of just an adaptation of the video game is a good idea. It tells its own story, and for fans of the series, I bet it would make a nice companion piece.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Dead Space games, they’re a series of third-person, survival horror shooters starring space engineer Isaac Clarke. They typically involve exploring dark and spooky environments that get more and more wicked and dangerous as the Necromorphs start taking over. It’s a fairly popular series, I believe, with Dead Space 3 released earlier this month. And like most good video game franchises these days, there’s a whole wealth of backstory to discover and pour over as you play. I know the first Dead Space game is littered with various tidbits of information about the breakout, and it appears that writer Antony Johnston has taken some of those clips and turned them into their own fascinating story.
This kind of comic is right up my alley. And there are two more Dead Space graphic novels to review at a latter date. For now, let’s explore Dead Space, which you can find on Amazon.com.
Henchman-4-Hire 