Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #1 // Review
The techie looks like a rat. “Never bet against the apocalypse,” he says. The healer is a precog who looks like an elf. The healer replies, “Every day’s an apocalypse for someone.” Yeah. It’s that kind of a day for everyone. The only way to safely make it between the stars has gone all wonky. The crew of a certain starship might work their way around it as they secure a client in Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #1. Writer James L. Sutter opens a promising new story in the world of the space fantasy tabletop roleplaying game. The visuals of the story assert themselves on the page courtesy of artist Edu Menna. Colorist Adriano Lucas brings life and depth to the visuals.
Navasi and her crew are hanging out in a bar when a portal opens up. A little yellow droid pops through the portal offering the crew work. Evidently, it’s on a mission to give advanced tech to relatively advanced inhabitants of a planet, who are probably ready for the new tech. It’s a first-contact mission. Navasi and her crew could be the only ones given the knowledge of this planet and its exact coordinates. This could be VERY lucrative for them. They only have to survive an attack by the crew of a rival vessel that already knows about Navasi’s new client. How difficult could THAT be?
Sutter has a great deal of world to establish in the first few pages of the new series. The opening of the first issue is heavily bogged down in worldbuilding that is handled in a very nuts-and-bolts fashion as the diverse crew of a spaceship discusses politics. Once the action really gets going, there's still way too much dialogue. The action that Sutter is committing to the page is moving a lot faster than the dialogue, which makes it all feel a bit silly in places. To his credit, Sutter is actually pretty witty with the dialogue. So it may be awkwardly verbal, but the overall feel of the first issue benefits from firmly establishing the personalities of everyone onboard the ship.
Menna is working well within the confines of a pre-established world. The challenge is to make a Star Wars/Guardians of the Galaxy-type of fantasy world feel distinct and unique. For the most part, Menna manages to do so in a way that is relatively sleek and stylish. The problem may be the fact that the majority of the characters don't have very expressive features. The drama of the story is relatively weak thanks to the weird morphology and inhuman faces of much of the crew. The action seems pretty well realized on the page, however. And it is that action that is the central appeal of the series thus far.
Sutter has established quite a path forward for this series. There are several major plot points that need to be hit in the course of the next several issues for everything to seem reasonably satisfying. Pacing is going to be crucial. If everything moves too quickly, then it's going to feel like too much of a mess. As busy as the first issue is, Sutter has done a really good job of keeping it well-modulated in a very dense first issue.
