When many people today hear of the franchise Battlestar Galactica, their thoughts turn to the more recent series by Ronald Moore and starring Edward James Olmos among others. I won’t deny it; it was an amazing series. But only some...
When many people today hear of the franchise Battlestar Galactica, their thoughts turn to the more recent series by Ronald Moore and starring Edward James Olmos among others. I won’t deny it; it was an amazing series. But only some people know that the show is itself a re-imagining of a previous series of the same name created by Glen A. Larson in 1978. You know who Glen Larson is, don’t you? He created such iconic 1980s action shows like Knight Rider and The A-Team. This series was launched shortly after the immense success of Star Wars and was survived 35 years.
To honor its 35th anniversary, Dynamite Entertainment launched a new series of Battlestar Galactica this week that continues the adventures of the original series. Yes, we have the story of Commander Adama, Colonel Tigh, Apollo, Starbuck, and the rest of the crew back in the day when their names actually WERE Apollo and Starbuck and not just call signs. For fans of the original series, this book appears to take place between the end of the Battlestar Galactica series but before Galactica 1980, when the ship actually did reach Earth but in the 1980s. And for fans of that original series I can honestly say that this series has the feel of the original show.
Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are well-known for their science fiction and outer space stories, as they were the individuals who revitalized Marvel’s cosmic line several years back and introduce the team we now know of as the Guardians of the Galaxy. They are quite experience in spinning some immense sci-fi based epics and this first issue of BSG is no different. From the guilt-ridden dreams of Commander Adama to the smart-ass attitude of Starbuck, we also see the beginnings of what is sure to be a large epic story that can spin off in any number of directions. The personas of the main characters are written quite well and actually match the personas of the original characters. There are gaps in the writing, such as when Adama asks for an update on the situation and suddenly continues to speak with no update. Although some may see this as a fault… this is how it was done in the original series as well. You cannot fault Abnett and Lanning for simply continuing what began in the series and keeping it true. In fact, had it gotten too technical , it simply wouldn’t be the same BSG. What they have done is brought some unique technology to the fleet as well, such as the use of temporal weapons that had banned by the colonies. They were charged with continuing the saga of the fleet and giving it some new life and some new energy, and they have succeeded.
Before talking about the interior art, let’s talk about the covers. The primary cover is done by Dynamite’s cover guru, Alex Ross. The detail that Ross puts into his work is simply amazing – as a result he has become one of my favorite artists. The fact that we can see the actual characters of the original series clearly portrayed truly lets the fan know this is a continuation of the original run. The only criticism I can make on the cover is that he appears to have Adama from the series premiere and not from the time that this story takes place – you can tell by the lack of facial hair on the Commander. As with all Dynamite books, there are a number of variant covers and the one shown to the right by Chris Eliopoulos is one of my favorites. The child-looking variant covers have become quite popular and quite fun, and this one is no different. Although I am the kind of person who really dislikes the fact that the covers have almost taken a higher precedence than the story within (when a book has 20 alternate covers that’s a tad too much) but a cover or 2 is all good.
The interior art is by Cezar Razek on both pencils and inks with coloring by Vinicius Townsend. The story wouldn’t be as good without the complementary art from this team and the art is very well done. The fact that in some scenes I can
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