SMC presents Liefeld’s Galactica: Special Edition

No, I’m not going over the original article George Lucas style. This is the other one-shot Battlestar Galactica comic that compiles stories from Asylum. Again, Liefeld’s only credit is publisher. How does this help the story? One way to find out.

This...kind of happens in the comic, but still doesn't sell the story.

Battlestar Galactica: Special Edition

Maximum Press (January, 1997)

According the Battlestar Wiki, this was titled “Athena’s Quest” when published in issues #4-5 and 7 (missing issue #6 for whatever reason they had) of Asylum. However, this subtitle does not appear anywhere in the comic.

The story, which takes place at some point during the TV Series, starts when a Cylon squadron attacks a Colonial shuttle. What is it doing so far from Galactica and the fleet? Never explained. The pilot makes the mistake of mentioning his family, which means he’s going to die. It’s a cliché that should be taught to every cadet in every military and law enforcement/rescue field ever. NEVER MENTION YOUR FAMILY BEFORE OR DURING AN INCIDENT!

For some reason, the Seraphs chase the Cylons off and maneuver the shuttle to crash-land on the planet Arilos, where a number of survivors of the Colony attack back in the first episode have found themselves. Finding the injured Athena, the refugees nurser her back to health just as the Cylons coming looking for her and decide to do what they do best, kill humans. Luckily, Athena gets help escaping thanks to a boy named Adama, named for her father as he was friends with the boy’s father. Adama 1 even gave Adama 2’s father a necklace similar to his and it has powers with helps the namesake save Athena at one point before Apollo and Starbuck arrive and chase the Cylons off again.

"A potentially interesting subplot? No, chase it away! Tis an evil thing!

At this point the strange old man whose presence was otherwise not worth mentioning stands on hill like Moses merged with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and turns out to be boy Adama’s father, and it appears a Seraph.

If this review sounded boring it’s because ultimately so was the comic. Not a whole lot happens. The whole point seems to be to get the Adama kid on board the ship, but unless he shows up in another Asylum story he’s never heard from again anyway. So what was the point? No, really, what was the point of this entire story?

I will say this, though. Pointless and boring as it is, the comic is at least competently written. That seems to be the pattern. Apollo’s Journey? Decent if not a “love letter” to the character of Apollo. The two stories of The Compendium? Probably the best of the comic stories I’ve read but still not as good as the TV show. However, at least these comics didn’t cause a hand-shaped red mark on my face from the levels of stupidity involved. With this run, that’s the best you can hope for.

"Permission to get a cool oversized eye like my cousin?"

Also, me being me, I have to complain about the “painted” style used in this comic. As I’ve said before and will probably say again, this just doesn’t work in sequential art. While there is a bit more emotion here in character’s faces and the special effects, Cylons, and ships look good, ultimately it’s just distracting and at times and the humans just don’t look as lifelike as they should. It’s always a turn-off for me. Apparently my scanner didn’t care for it either, as the image quality isn’t close to the actual comic, and one scan even came out weird.

Ultimately, I don’t hate this comic but I don’t really enjoy it, either. I’m questioning if I want to add this to the comics I plan to send for Linkara to tear into. It’s not bad, but it’s not really that interesting and I’m not even sure there are any good jokes to be had here. At any rate, we only have one more mini-series to go before our voyage into Liefeld’s Galactica is finally complete. Next time, whenever that is, it’s the Starbuck-focused three-parter properly titled Starbuck. Stay tuned for that.

Related articles

• Scanning My Collection presents Liefeld’s Galactica: The Compendium (bwmedia.wordpress.com)