The Expanse Origins
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Based on The Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey
Story: Hallie Lambert, Georgia Lee
Illustrations: Huang Danlan
Colors: Triona Farrell, Juan Useche
Letters: Jim Campbell
The Expanse is originally a book series written by the author duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey. There is also a television series of the same name on SyFy. The Expanse Origins is set in The Expanse universe and takes place before the events of Leviathan Wakes, the first book in the series.
The Expanse is a wildly successful space opera with rough and tumble characters who question authority and follow missions of their own making. It’s a series that feature moral questions, vengeance, and political scheming. Major draws are the likable characters and heart-pounding action. Unfortunately, this first installment in this graphic novel series loses a bit of that flair as the authors explore pre-Leviathan Wakes events.
Leviathan Wakes, the book, follows two main points of view, Captain Jim Holden and Detective Joe Miller. This graphic novel tells the origin stories of Captain Jim Holden and his crew, Naomi Nagata, Alex Kamal, Amos Burton. There is also an origin story for Joe Miller. In this prequel we gain insight on what led the hodge-podge crew to be a part of Holden’s somewhat rouge outfit. It shows the people and things each character left behind, and what led them to take on such an isolated assignment.
There really isn’t much action to speak of, but for fans of the books and TV series, there are interesting backstory details. Most of the stories run to the sad or dismal, but that is in keeping with the original story of these characters. Though they’ve created a symbiotic family among themselves, most of them have left their real families behind.
The art style is crisp and stark. The colors are clinical, with bright whites, but muted, almost pale blues, greens, and pinks. It fits with the perception of people living on space-ships in places with recycled air and institutional lighting.
All in all I felt this was a pretty good start to a new graphic novel series set in this world. It laid down some foundations for the authors and artists to expand further into each character’s journey to the ship and assignment at the beginning of Leviathan Wakes. I’m interested to see how they’re able to bring some of the action and adventure back into the story line in future installments.
Frankie Reads
