Re-Reading: Solar #6

[xoken]

I thought we could do a book a day (that way people can read one every day or catch up on weekends), talk about it on its own, in the context of whats next, in regards to what expectations it creates and vote on how good it is. I don't have to be the one that posts everyday. If I miss a day or if someone wants to take over please do

For voting think of your single favourite comic book (not just VALIANT) as the benchmark - thats a 10 - and grade according to that.

Make sure to mention what you like'd about the book, what you didn't, what you wish they would have done, your favourite panels, lines of dialogue, little bits of trivia etc.

Solar #6

[magnusr]

An intelligent superhero comic with nice art. We have left "Second Death" behind, but even so there is still a lot of human/superhero/god issues left to explore. There's no rush in doing that, it simply happens naturally in the flow of the story.

/Magnus

[jedimarley]

Great issue.

Solid story and art.

We get to see the XO suit and lots of dead spider aliens.

[Daniel Jackson]

Nice story, Solar has a hard decision to make at the end when he deals with the Spider Aliens in this one. I like what he tells them when they think they have him over a barrel. "I speak for us all and I say.. this'll hurt at first...."

[Todd Luck]

And now for an issue we'll see replicated but never, ever duplicated...

The journey into the spider alien is exactly the way it should be: An exploration of this big, vast alien place that's amazing to behold crawling with dozens upon dozen of different armored aliens (where in the hell are these guys in the post-Shooter comics?). It's fasinating, horrorifying and visually exciting.

And Shooter knows how to make things in a story have meaning: you give them depth and contrast. You may feel horror if someone dies a gory death suddenly but you won't be sad unless you get to know the character first. And Shooter does that with the human survivors. We see them do little things they hadn't got to in forever like bath and eat fruit. We feel their hope and their joy at these little things. We share their excitement as they storm the ship. And then we watch helpless as every single last one dies. Extremely powerful.

And Shooter is even smart enough to give the spider aliens depth. We understand why they do what they do and why they hate us. It gives them more menace to know religious fanaticism and not just mindless hunger that drives them.

And there is always a sense of danger here. There is always tension. It's a damn shame none of these things are present when the spider aliens show up after Shooter leaves.

Another great issue. A 9 .

[sonicdan]

One of my faves:

[Daniel Jackson]

Very cool Dan!

[magnusr]

The VCB synopsis:

In orbit around Saturn, Solar surveys the hundreds of thousands of massive Spider Alien ships. He is wondering what to do when a Commando-class X-O warrior comes out to confront him. Solar smashes the warrior with rocks from Saturn’s rings, then follows the injured alien inside the craft.
Inside, Solar scans the craft, noting that it appears to have been grown, not built. Then, Solar sees through a bulkhead and spots a human. He discovers that it is a woman, Ettice Cunningham, held prisoner for use as food. They are soon attacked by alien warriors who try to bite Solar. Knowing that the aliens feed on humans, Solar feels nothing now but hatred for them. He frees the other captives aboard the ship and leads them to the rain forest Sanctuary at the heart of the ship. There, the wretched captives bathe and eat fruit from the trees, gaining morale even as they wonder if Solar is God. They also wonder why the aliens don’t attack them in the Sanctuary. Solar theorizes that the forest is somehow essential to the ship and the aliens won’t risk damaging it by attacking them there.
Having regained their strength, the “Solar Squad” begin attacking the aliens throughout the ship. With the liberated captives armed with captured weapons, Solar leaves them to find the ship’s bridge. There, he finds three humanoid aliens who explain that the Spider Aliens are deeply religious and hold things green and growing to be sacred. When the humans ate the fruit and burned the wood, they commited the most horrific sin imaginable to the Spiders. Therefore, they must be punished. And with that, the Spider Alien spokesperson presses a button that opens a section of the ship’s hull, sucking the “Solar Squad” out to their deaths in space. The aliens think Solar will realize that, with many more human captives as hostages, the aliens have the upper hand. Instead, Solar knows these hostages are as good as dead. And he begins to systematically wipe out the alien Saturn fleet.

/Magnus