Geek Syndicate
COMIC REVIEW
Orbital Volume 1 - Scars
into space (as bottom-feeders) to join an 8,000 year old confederation of alien civilisations. If I had to compare Orbital with anything I would call it a cross between Babylon 5 and the Green Lantern Corps but that’s only give you a very generalised shape of the set-up. We open on Earth at the last conference before voting begins on joining the Confederation. Considering how hard it is to get a single country to agree on the benefits of joining the EU - imagine how hard it would be to convince our whole race to join the intergalactic equivalent. A terrorist attack by an Isolationist group sets the tone for the piece and the course of the story for our human protagonist, Caleb Swany. Years later, Caleb is the first human to be recruited into the ranks of the Inter-world Diplomatic Office (IDO), in a role that seems to blend peacemaking with arse-kicking action in equal measures. The Confederation already perceives humanity as a violent, uncivilised species, so Caleb’s promotion is cause enough for scandal. The fact that he is partnered with a Sandjarr (an alien species nearly wiped out by humans in a recent war) raises a lot of eyebrows, but the IDO is determined to use them as an example of the healing power of diplomacy. This is the raison d’être for the entire comic and, although it’s pretty slow-burning to begin with, it does set the scene nicely for the prejudice and wholesale intolerance our heroes will have to combat across the Confederation to preserve the balance of peace. Pellé’s artwork is the major draw for me with this book. Where Leo’s Antares favoured the clean lines and pristine machinery of golden-age sci-fi, Orbital takes a grimy future approach in the vein o