When we last left our hero (in a surprisingly good first issue), Starbuck had crash-landed on a planet because he tends to do that. Meeting up with members of a resistance on a Eastern Alliance penal colony, Starbuck goes to retrieve his radio (the talk to other people kind) and rescue a man named Joseph. He kind of failed at both.
What did he do, leave his cigar in his back pocket?
Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #2
Maximum Press (January, 1996)
STORY: Rob Liefeld & Robert Napton SCRIPT: Robert Napton ARTIST: Hector Gomez COLORIST: Scott Rockwell COLOR SEPARATIONS: Heroic Age LETTERER: Kurt Hathaway EDITOR: Matt Hawkins
Still in prison, Starbuck is forced to watch as Kresh has Joseph terminated and threatens to do the same to Starbuck unless he gives the location of the resistance base. However, Leiter wants to use him to gain information on the Fleet and bring them down.
However, the man they killed wasn’t Joseph. The real man makes contact with Starbuck, thanks to some help from sympathizers to the West’s cause. He has a plan to help Starbuck escape.
Back on the Galactica, the ship and the fleet, still damaged by the East’s attack, is about to leave the system, with no proof that Starbuck is alive. Cassiopeia understands but isn’t happy about it. What follows is a surprisingly nice scene (surprising because of the other books) as Cassie tells Chameleon, who is secretly Starbuck’s father, about his son’s fate. And yet Chameleon assures her not only that Starbuck is still alive but that he loves her as much as she loves him. (Starbuck, not Chameleon.) Oh, and Chameleon was played by Fred Astaire (and there’s even a nod to that in this scene) on the character’s one show appearance. Not kidding.
At the penal colony, Joseph succeeds in getting Starbuck out of the prison camp along with a message to rally the troops because it’s time to liberate the camp. To confirm that they’ll be ready, Watts and Justine convince Starbuck to allow himself to be captured.
“Surprised they didn’t talk me into wearing a dress, too.”
With the help of his guard friends, Joseph is able to learn that the resistance is ready and agrees to help Starbuck reach the transmitter to alert the Galactica that he’s alive and ready for pick-up. The Battlestar is on its way, but Leiter intercepts the transmission and they plan to bomb Lunar-One out of existence first! Thus ends part two.
OK, what’s going on here? This has to be all Napton. We’ve seen he does a great job with the original time period and Liefeld must not be using a lot of influence here. These are likable characters, the art is as good as this company is going to get (although the panel boxes are still silly the layout is only mildly as bad as usual), and the story competent. We still have one issue to go. Will it all fall apart or will I actually not hate this?
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