No bug puns, please. It could be hazardous.
Sectaurs #1
Oni Press (or Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Company) (October, 2024)
WRITER: Dennis Culver
ARTIST: Ramon Bachs
COLORIST: Manoli Martinez
LETTERER: Taylor Esposito
EDITOR: Karl Bollers
The planet Symbion, home of insect humanoids knows as Sectaurs, divided between the Shining Realm and Dark Domain. The king of the Shining Realm has fallen comatose. As his son, Dargon, must assume the throne he is having trouble with one particular rite of passage trying to bond with his insectoid mount, Dragonflyer, due to his doubts. As his friends try to help him relax before the next attempt, the queen of the Dark Domain overthrows her husband, believing it’s the Dark Domain’s destiny to destroy the Shining Realm and learn the secrets of the “hyves”. Then she launches a sneak attack on the Shining Realm’s castle. As the others facilitate Dargon’s escape he is captured by the Dark Domain’s general.
What they got right: On it’s own it’s not a bad start. Everyone is established well enough (well, maybe some of Dargon’s friends could use an introductions since I know they were supporting cast for the original toyline and media), and the lore by itself is interesting as is the backstory of this version of the war between the Shining Realm and Dark Domain.
What they got wrong: It’s the adaptation and it’s place in the “Nacelleverse” where I have issue. There doesn’t seem to be any connection to the original idea in minicomics and TV special I’ve gone over in the past, that a killer virus turned the people of Symbion into Sectaurs and insects into Insectoids, or the lost history of science, though this could still come up in later issues. It depends on what the “hyves” are in this version. (Their misspelling, not mine.) Also, since this supposed to be a pre-tech culture at this stage (or maybe post-tech if they do go with the original apocalyptic virus, which they might have abandoned after the 2020 plague), how can there be Sectaurs living and working on Earth, as we see in the Nacelleverse remakes of the Robo Force cartoon and comic that are both supposed to be part of the shared universe? Does this take place at least years prior to the first chapter?
What I think overall: Sectaurs not fitting in to the same universe as Robo Force or the Biker Mice From Mars (I even question Wild West C.O.W.boys of Moo Mesa or why they bothered with Garloo, something so old I never heard of it until this point and still hasn’t had a comic or TV miniseries even announced) was one of my worries. Based on this first issue I may be right in that early assessment. Post-apocalypse or just fantasy story, it doesn’t work without huge amounts of time between this series and the others.
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