Graphic Novel Review – Farscape: Scorpius Vol 1 by Rockne S. O’Bannon, David Mack, Mike Ruiz (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Graphic Novel
Length: 112 pages
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Release Date: November 9, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1608865802
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Farscape Scorpius series
Source: Copy from Publisher for Review
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I got a copy of this from BEA years ago. I was a huge fan of the Farscape Sci-Fi series when it was on and was curious to see what this Scorpius graphic novel spin-off would bring. I finally sat down and read through it, it was a quick read and honestly a bit disappointing.

The graphic novel starts with Scorpius abandoned on an ice world. We get some flashbacks to his past, that were a bit confusing because they aren’t marked as such. Then suddenly a huge armada of aliens land on his abandoned planet (why we will never know) and Scorpius manages to worm his way onto their ship and eventually take command of it.

This whole graphic novel is just okay. The illustration is okay but a bit unfinished looking. It is in full color which I like, but the color is blocky and unfinished looking.

The story is a bit ludicrous. An alien armada just happens to stop at the extremely remote planet Scorpius is stranded on. And of course the aliens are stupid enough to go with whatever Scorpius says and let him take control of the ship. It had me rolling my eyes and just seemed very contrived.

The only good thing about this graphic novel is that you do get to see some about Scorpius’s past; however it’s not very clear that you are reading about his past until pretty far into the graphic novel. A nice little notation of something like “many years ago on planet wherever” would have helped clear up this confusion immensely.

Overall a bit disappointing. It was good to look into Scorpius’s past but this graphic novel is plagued by poor illustration and a contrived (almost silly) plot. Add to the that confusing jumps in time and it really wasn’t entertaining or fun to read. I guess I’ll just have to rewatch all the Sci-Fi seasons of Farscape to get my Scorpius fix in the future.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge