Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Planetoid #1Planetoid #1
Image Comics
Garing

Science fiction stories come in all shapes and sizes. The kind that I like the best are the ones where the future is dim. The ones where the world (or worlds) are dirty and life generally is terrible. I want to see stories where technology is only a prop but where it's the character that perseveres through the most difficult times. Planetoid is such a book. Ken Garing is the lone creator working on the title and you can tell it is a labor of lover. He pours so much detail into the world, the main character, his personality and the plot that I couldn't help but fall in love with the title. This was a terrific find that looks to have a promising future.

The plot is easy: Silas crashes on a planet and is basically trapped. He wanders around and encounters a lot of clues about the world. His only guide is his smart A.I. assistant. Eventually he meets up with another human and he gets the story about the planet and it isn't a good one.

The story is good, but the character work is tremendous. The book only has three characters and we get to know them very well. Silas is a very likeable character and I think this is because he is so guarded about so much of what he does. The planet, as a story element, is also excellent because it is so mysterious. The possibilities seem endless.

The only down side to the book is the lack of a cliffhanger. It's obviously a personal preference, but I really want my individual issues to have a punctuation point at the end of the book and this one was just a little too subtle for my tastes.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe best part about this comic is the artwork. Garing takes the reader on an amazing tour of the world (or at least the part Silas searches) and it's quite a display. The world has a very dark, dirty and used up feel to it. The planet looks every bit the part of a junk pile, but even the atmosphere looks dingy. The book makes excellent usage of the idea that showing is more than telling because of the things that Garing sees, especially the creatures he encounters. There isn't a need for Silas to state or think that he is afraid or shocked because the art delivers all of that detail panel to panel. The book is a great visual story and it has a much closer vision to a science fiction story than most of what I read.

Garing puts forth an excellent effort with this book. I am always wary of picking up a book when it is only one creator working on all of the duties. My fear is that I will love the book and then it will never stay on a schedule. I hope that is not the case with this one. For thirty plus pages at $3 you simply can't go wrong. This is an excellent debut issue with the promise of so much more to come.

4.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles