Orbital v5: “Justice”

They’re using a very funny definition of the word “Justice” here…

OK, so it makes sense when you read it and see that the new faceless bad guys use that as their catchphrase.  But I’m not going to talk about those characters until the next book. So stay tuned…

The Trial of the Century

This is the book where the past catches up to our two heroes and some politicians take every advantage of the situation to make things better for themselves.

We get one of the greatest constructs of comic series drama: the courtroom trial!  I love those, particularly when the deliciously evil bad guy reframes positive events to make them sound bad for our heroes. This one fits right into that mold, though the reframing may actually have a point…

Just to set it up: This book starts without another “wonderful” moment in Confederation history on Earth interrupted in super dramatic fashion by violent isolationists.  They just can’t stop blowing things up, it seems.

This is one event too many. All of the decisions Caleb and Mezoke made up to this point are seen as moments that led up to this one, fair or not, so it’s time for them to answer for those decisions.

It’s not like there’s not a case to be made against them:

The truths come out.  Everything.  From the true nature of their Neuroneme spaceship to the lies to the media to cover up bigger issues in Kuala Lumpar to the preferential treatment some received to keep the peace — it’s all coming to a head.

The opportunistic prosecutor is going to milk this for all that it’s worth.  He sees this as his chance to shine to a wary public tired of ineffectual services by the IDO.  As more proof piles up that makes Caleb and Mezoke look bad, his aspirations only climb higher.  He sees this trial not as a way to deliver justice for the wrongs of Caleb and Mezoke, but as a way to climb the political ranks.

Mezoke just happens to be the most accessible target to get to that point.

Sylvain Runberg has been plotting this all along.  In volume 2, there’s this innocent enough panel:

And now, in the fifth volume, we see someone going after her, though Caleb and Mezoke.

Caleb would be on trial, too, if he wasn’t in a medically-induced coma while they try to heal him and hope for the best.  His fight against the Varosash at the end of v4,  “Ravages,” have left his body a mess, subject to the best medical efforts with foreign tech to bring him back to life.

Mezoke seems what’s happening, though.  She knows this trial is a sham and not a fact-finding mission.  She’ll have none of it.  That’s why she hatches a daring plan of her own that changes the direction of the series entirely.

Splitting So Soon?

I didn’t expect to see things happen in this series so fast.  We’ve barely made it through two adventures, and we’re already getting the fall of Caleb and Mezoke in volume 5.

I expected to see more procedural stories before getting to this point, but here we are. I wonder if the pace at which they’re producing books meant moving the timeline up on the over-all story arc.  When you can’t publish more than a book every couple of years, you can’t serialize it forever without losing people.

Also, they didn’t need to wait any longer. There’s enough evidence (some of it incorrect, but still) from the first two storylines to put the two on trial.  It hasn’t been an easy or clean run as special agents.

They — particularly Caleb — have know that some of the things they were doing carried risks, should they be found out. What was often done in the name of saving political face for others is now blowing up in their own faces.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Angus Is Hurt, Too

One of the subplots of the book involves the parallel healing of Angus to Caleb.  Angus is busy sitting in an ammonia bath trying to recover from the Varosash’s attack at the end of the last book.  It’s the same one that put Caleb into a coma within an inch of his life.  Those nasty little creatures infected both to one degree or another.

There’s a bit of a parallel between Caleb and Angus here, as they’re both slowly recuperating in their separate facilities.  It’s good to form that link now for what’s going to happen in the next book.

“Star Wars” Meets “The Fifth Element” Meets “Valerian and Laureline”

You can’t review this book without making those comparisons.  There’s an almost-four page silent sequence where Mezoke is jumping from flying car to flying car, working her way down and across from a high floor of one skyscraper to another.

Those flying cars and that teeming city remind me of all of the above comics and movies.  It looks just as good as any of them.

It’s the perfect combination of Pelle’s design and storytelling skills that he doesn’t get nearly enough opportunities to show off.  This is the run-and-gun volume of the series I’ve been looking forward to since the start.

Some Weird Lettering Things

There’s one lettering thing that’s bothered me from the first book, but I’ve put off talking about it.  I thought maybe it was just me.  The more I see it, though, the more I think it’s wrong.

No, not the crossbar-I. At this point, I’m surprised more when it’s right  That’s annoying and frustrating, but it’s not what I’m talking about in this book.

There are a lot of word balloons with no indication of who’s talking.  They just float out there at the top of the panel. Sometimes, it’s a continuation of the person who was talking in the last panel and they’re off-panel now.  Sometimes, it goes in reverse.

If it’s someone speaking inside a building, there’s no tail pointing into the building, and there’s no quotations around the speech to indicate this isn’t the sudden intrusion of a narrator.

It can be confusing, particularly when you haven’t established who’s talking first . When you get to the next panel and there are two people in it, how can you tell who was talking in the previous panel?  Do you just assume it’s the same person as is speaking first in this balloon?

I’m thinking that nearly 30 years of reading comics has prepared my mind for this particular challenge.  It doesn’t lose me much, but I do trip over this occasionally.   It’s so easily fixed, though, that it’s frustrating there isn’t someone who knows more bout lettering to correct this kind of stuff before it sees final print.

Recommended?

Yes, I loved the action sequences with Mezoke, but I also like the way Runberg puts together all the pieces of the puzzle he’s been building up for the last four books.  There are a lot of characters in this book, including lots of old friends.   This book is a real left turn for the series, which is new and exciting.

Coming up next: In the sixth volume, war begins. Since nobody likes anybody anymore, what else would you expect?

— 2018.065 —

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