“Yesterday’s” Comic> Adrift #1

“How am I going to get a taxi out here?”

Adrift #1

Image Comics/Top Cow Productions (July, 2015)

WRITER: Matt Hawkins

ARTIST: Luca Casalanguida

COLORIST: Andrew Elder

LETTERER: Troy Peteri

EDITOR: Betsy Gonia

SERIES CREATOR: Adam Orth

July 8, 2037: Commander Alex Oshima is the only survivor of the mysterious destruction of her orbiting space lab, looking to extract air from planets in space to have a continuous air supply on stations and colonies. Once she sees to her own survival while adrift in space, she stumbles upon her inspiration, a French astronaut who made amazing discoveries but was grounded after absorbing too much radiation. When he developed cancer, he took up with this private company’s experiment on the space lab. It seems the space radiation is actually reducing his cancer, but all he really wants to do is stay in space, even die there. He got his wish, but Alex isn’t ready to join him.

After Alex gets a spare air canister the story shifts to the French astronaut, Sebastien Oliver. I wonder if that’s what the series will be, the life stories of the astronauts, and if they overshadow this mysterious destruction of the station or play into the mystery. I can’t get a real sense one way or the other, and while both are interesting ideas, unless this ties into her investigation and attempts to get home safe, I fear they might compete with each other.

I do really like the artwork. I wonder if this was inspired by the 2013 movie Gravity, about shuttle astronauts stranded in space, but with the added mystery of what happened to the station? It’s an interesting idea and I am curious to see more in the future.