SMC Present’s Liefeld’s Galactica: Apollo’s Journey #2

It’s not the allergies making this late. I was trying to see if I have a chance of getting to ConnectiCon this year. It’s not good unless I only go up Saturday and don’t stay the night. Fiances taking a major hit this year. 😦

So where were we before draining sinuses interrupted our groove. Count Iblis tricked the Nomen into taking over the Galactica, took control of Apollo long enough for everyone to think he’s gone nuts and shot Commander Cain, and he isn’t done yet. So let’s check back in with our ragtag fleet as only Apollo #1 Richard Hatch can tell it.

I see we're back to bland covers.

Battlestar Galactica: Apollo’s Journey #2

Maximum Press (June 1996)

Like the caption says, this cover is a bit boring, just a pink explosion (meant to represent the portal in the story, I guess) with Apollo and Sheba’s head and arm. It really doesn’t sell the comic, which a cover should do. a #1 cover should reflect the series or mini-series as a whole, with a #2 beginning to sell the story within. This cover is back to the norm for this series under Maximum.

At the end of the previous issue, Apollo runs off in a Viper (it would have been interesting to put him in his old Viper and had a battle scene with old and new Viper, where Apollo doesn’t want to hurt his opponent) because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone while trying to fight off Iblis’ influence. However, just as Sheba is catching up to her husband (whom she blames for trying to kill her father, knowing nothing of Iblis’ involvement), a portal opens in front of Apollo, who finds himself in Iblis’ dimension. Sheba is unable to pursue, but Adam is able to get the injured Cain to the Ark. I’m not sure how he got there, as I don’t remember him being on board prior to the Nomen’s takeover.

Back on Earth, in New Eden City, Iblis frees the other prisoners (geez, how many prisoners did they have in this fleet?) and sends them to conquer the city. Back in his dimension, Iblis tries using images of Adama and Serina to convince Apollo to join his side. Showing his duplicitous nature, Iblis says that together they can conquer the Cylons. It’s like a Vader/Luke moment, only Iblis doesn’t claim to be Apollo’s father.

"Next, we'll pay back the re-imaginers for not putting us in the show."

At the Ark, Commander Cain becomes conscious long enough to tell Sheba to tell his second on the Pegasus to initiate attack pattern Cain Omega. The former prisoners then launch an attack on the Ark. Back on the ship, Boxey, Cain, and Bojay (Hatch actually remembered that character; I didn’t) manage to take down one Nomen and hoped to activate the intruder control system, but the Nomen have locked it out. This actually brings up a scene I would have loved to seen; when Sheba is upset that Apollo is thinking about Serina in the first issue, a moment where Boxey tries to tell Sheba that he thinks his mom would be happy that Apollo was sealed (married) with Sheba, and that he respects her as a stepmother, or at least a bit upset at the “news” that his dad had gone off of the deep end (for that matter, the younger Cain, believing his dad shot the grandfather he’s just getting to know after losing his other one in the first arc). Granted, that might have slowed the comic down and Hatch has done a better pacing job than Robert Napton, who has been writing the series thus far, but this is all we get from the brothers and that’s rather a shame.

Back with the Cylons, Baltar is upset that his base ship has been relegated to the third wave, but he claims to have “taken steps to ensure that victory against the Colonials will be ours to savor…alone“. It’s like Hatch wanted to do something with the Cylons but didn’t want to step on Napton’s shoes doing it. Still, he writes a better Baltar than Napton thus far.

Meanwhile, Apollo pulls a little trickery of his own, making Iblis think he’s willing to join up. The fallen Seraph sends the commander to the Ark to obtain the family amulet. The story ends as the Nomen prepare to publicly execute the Council of Twelve as the Pegasus finally receives the order to execute Cain’s attack plan.

Once again, Hatch has shown a better job putting this comic together than the regular writer. Even the art seems somewhat improved, but we don’t have a close enough look at the Cylons to see if they still have bulging veins. Hatch has shown he can use the spiritual as well as science sides of the original series. There’s one issue left to go and we’ll take a look at it (hopefully) tomorrow to see if he can pull off as good a finish as he has the first two acts.

Related articles

• SMC Presents Liefeld’s Galactica: Apollo’s Journey #1 of 3 (bwmedia.wordpress.com)