Redshift #3

Redshift #3

Scout Comics 2021

Written by H.S. Tak

Illustrated by Brent McKee

Coloured by Sebastian Cheng

Lettered by Joel Rodriguez

As Aphelion travels further away from home, the explorers work to gain each other's trust while Tiberius discovers some inconvenient truths about the rule of law on Mars.

Captain Singh is still not happy that Hellener is on board this flight. I mean I get it, they’ve sent one out at a time and this changes things up dramatically, and they wanted him on that ship and didn’t tell her this. Not only does she know she wasn’t first choice but their first choice ended up on board with her so it has to sting a bit. However with two of them on board this flight they have a better chance of actually surviving and being the first flight to actually make it back alive and well. So while it may be a double edged sword everything should be working out in the favour. Plus if this issue is any indication my initial thoughts on all this are right on point. I do like the way that the reader is encouraged to think about what is beyond the page thus becoming incredibly engaged and invested in this story.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really brings their personalities to the forefront. This includes the ship's A.I. system as well. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more I really want to see. Ju-Wen’s ship and what happened there for instance is something we need to see more of.

I greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I like how we see the layers opening up these new avenues to be explored and how they add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are really nicely rendered. So while they are on the ship I would like to see a better sense of claustrophobia or at least not feeling like they have a football’s worth of space surrounding them. I know this makes backgrounds harder to utilise but then that apple orchard does do a great job of showing us something to enhance and expand the moments, actually the inside of Ju-Wen’s ship does this nicely as well. How we see the composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a great understanding how colour works.

This is an interesting story thus far and that we’re seeing a ship so close, relatively speaking, to Mars where our intrepid duo has left from of course. Part of me does wish we’d see more of the Perseus and what caused it to end its journey so prematurely. Of course it would be too much to hope for that Hellener’s mother was on a planet somewhere unable to return home and that these two will collect her and possibly others on the way to find a planet that will support the planet's populace. With some engaging writing and smart characterisation wrapped around these amazingly solid interiors Scout Comics continues to bring us some top notch storytelling.