Advance Review: Rogue Planet #1
If there is one type of horror story that should appeal to the science fiction fan in me, it is this type of thing. A scavenger ship follows a signal leading to a mass called the Lonely Orphan. The Lonely Orphan is a rogue planet meaning it is devoid of its own solar system or star. To be honest, these things always seem to have ominous names. No one is scared of Pleasant Valley planet or Sunnyside Spheroid.
The crew of the Cortes, the aforementioned salvage ship, are awoken from hyper-sleep to make planet fall. It is a world weary crew for sure, with all hope abandoned it seems as the promise of a huge payload outweighs their own personal feelings of animosity, whilst battling the emptiness of their scavenging existence. Of course, things tend to get worse once the crew actually land and start their trek across the mountains, rife with their own dangers.
I have been a fan of writer Cullen Bunn for some time; Dark Ark from AfterShock Comics is fine example of the type of horror that Bunn can instill in the reader. Granted that idea had more than a touch of originality. Here, despite the quality of the dialogue, I can’t help feel that I have seen this type of story way too often, whether it be Alien or any number of episodes of Doctor Who; scavenger teams never seem to do well. All the tropes are there; with the grumpy team member, apparent system problems and a captain who cares more about profit than his crew, the story is very familiar. To get past this, there has to be something new and enticing to get your teeth into. Unfortunately, there is no such beast here.
The art is supplied by Andy McDonald, an industry veteran who has spent time on the Justice League of America and Wolverine to name a couple of series. Here, his work is a little more rough and ready than you may expect. Rogue Planet is a very much used, lived in universe where everything has a film of grit and dirt. The art, whilst not my cup of tea, does fit the story well, though I do wish there was more consistency around faces and body postures, which can change from panel to panel. McDonald does get to have some fun with an alien landscape, which truth be told, I actually expected more horror or even something to differentiate from the rather “by the book” story line. Colors are provided by Nick Filardi, who gets to have fun with an alien landscape to contrast the dark spaceship interiors. On the advance copy, there is no credit for a letterer; whomever provided the fonts, they do get to mix it up with alien speak, tech speak and of course regular human fonts.
Despite some top notch talent on this book, this book fails to offer anything new. Still Bunn and McDonald do enough so that if you are a fan of either the creators or the spec horror sub-genre, then there might be something of interest for you.
Writing – 3 Stars
Art – 3 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars
Overall – 3 Stars
Written by; Cullen Bunn
Art by; Andy McDonald
Colors by; Nick Filardi
Published by; Oni Press Inc
Rogue Planet #1 will hit comic store and be available digitally on April 1st 2020.
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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