Callisto

Callisto is a sci-fi graphic novel about Jupiter's second largest moon Callisto. It is home to a space colony that is one of humanity's industrial and mining settlements. It is also hotspot of commerce, culture, and religion. 

Detective Becca Ramos is assigned to investigate the disappearances of several people on Callisto. She will discover a hidden cult who uses the symbol of a cross in a circle. They are called pilgrims but no one knows why. The group is either a religious group from earth or they could possibly refer to the people who came to America. As Becca investigates the disappearances she sees a growing body count and many of the deceased are near the cross symbol. Field Surveyor Santoro is the suspected perp and Becca is searching for him. 

I particularly enjoyed the mechanical cats on this moon. They look just like the cats on earth but these cats are rechargeable. The Callisto setting was similar to earth. There were highrise condos, a city hall and a jail. However, the buildings look like they were created from shipping containers. There was alot of metal on this moon. Colorist Lee Loughridge colored the drawings in muted tones of green, blue, burgundy, teal and brown. The color pallette helped create an otherworldly, dystopian atmosphere which I would expect to find on another planet or moon. Parents, there is no foul language in the story but there is nudity and sexy scenes.

The story moved quickly making the book a fast read. There is one issue that I have though. SPOILER ALERT. I didn't understand the ending. Becca wakes up in a hospital after being unconscious for three days. She appears to be very pregnant and a doctor states she is ready to deliver the child. On the next page we see that all the doctors are dead, having been gruesomely murdered. Huh?

Please note that I received a free copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on October 6, 2026. 

3 out of 5 stars.

The Whisper War #1

The first installment of The Whisper War was published a few days ago on February 10, 2026. It's a Comixology Original comic that's both a sci-fi thriller and a murder mystery all in one. The story takes place in the planet Imprimata's capital city Apperax. Axel Jindari is a retired detective but was chosen by the Carabinieri's algorithm to return and lead the investigation. The Carabinieri have a saying that "even when you're out, you're never really out," and can be recalled at any time. From the start there's no body as the victim fell 18,000 tremin from a cloudbreaker. He or she is paste. It looks like a suicide but law enforcement believes the victim was pushed.

The first installment does a good job of introducing the story as well as the characters. Axel is a well-built man who left law enforcement for an orbital job. He doesn't work on the planet any more but rather in its orbit. While Axel tries to get out of taking the job, once he realizes the futility of it all he immediately gets to work. Inspector Seeva Dessin is an attractive lady who was sent by her bosses to bring Axel to the Carabinieri offices in Apperax. I see a possible romance between the two but we will have to wait for the release of Part 2 on March 10, 2026.

5 out of 5 stars.

Outer Lands

With the Winter Olympics on TV 24/7 I am behind in my reading plan for February. It's hard to turn the TV off. However, I thought I would review a few comics to at least post something on the blog. Outer Lands is my first comic review of the month. It was published in August 2025 by Darkling Entertainment. It's a Comixology Original comic with 125 pages of gorgeous graphics from Davide Gianfelice and a riveting story by Matthew Arnold. Colorist Luca Salce and Letterer Ed Dukeshire complete the artistic components.

The publisher's summary was rather simplistic for this complex plot: "When a young prince living in an Ancient Grecian world is exiled to a prison isle to keep him from assuming the throne, he unintentionally discovers a massive global conspiracy in this science-fiction fantasy mash-up."

There is much more to the story though. It begins as a historical fiction story set in ancient Greece and quickly moves into a post-apocalyptic thriller. The main character is Prince Heron who has just inherited the throne. Men working with his sister kidnap him and sell him into slavery. Sister Isadora then seizes his throne for herself. While Heron is in prison, he uncovers a global conspiracy concerning the lost city Atlantis. The world has been taught that the Atlanteans were a cruel warmongering people who enjoyed killing. However, this was not true. Heron and a few others read in forbidden books that they were peace-loving people. Heron is later lucky to escape his prison and sets out to find Atlantis. The narrative later explores themes of AI and the fear of nuclear war.

The plot was thrilling and the characters memorable. Heron is quite sympathetic because he lost his throne and quickly accepts his fate. Isadora is an intense villainess intent on keeping her brother far away from Greece. It's the only way she can maintain a hold on her crown. The Greek people are not happy with her though and there are frequent protests.

Parents, the story has no foul language nor are there sexy drawings. It's acceptable for children. I thoroughly enjoyed Outer Lands and highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars.

Alienated

 

Alienated is one of the best comics I've ever read. I am anxiously awaiting release #2 in May. In this release the arrival of aliens on earth shakes the world. All of the alien bodies found were deceased except for one, aptly named Alien. He was found hiding in a man's closet. A disconnected family of a grandfather, TJ, and his grandkids, Lily and Winter, get together and decide to hide it from the curious world. The big question here is whether they can keep Alien hidden.

The story ended abruptly with Alien trying to communicate with the family. He was unsuccessful but the family thought they understood him. We have a cliffhanger concerning the nature of Alien's statements but we have to wait a few weeks to find out.

Release #1 has setup the series and the characters well. Now that we have the backstory in mind, the rest of Alien's needs and desires can be focused on in future installments of this 5 release series. 5 out of 5 stars.

Endless

Endless is a 5 volume Comixology Original comic that was published in 2024 and 2025. Author Curt Pires is one of my favorite cartoonist. His stories are always entertaining and this one is no different. It's fantastic.

The publisher's summary:

When a heist to steal an expensive piece of scientific technology goes wrong, Henry Quan, a selfish career criminal, is unmoored in both space and time. Thrown in and out of parallel lives across the multiverse, he struggles to find his way back home and find out what exactly happened to him. 

Endless is a science-fiction story that shows the 5 ways that thief Henry Quan has died. Each of the 5 issues depict Henry in a new life in a new universe but always making the same mistakes and getting killed in the process. 

Henry's story begins with him rushing to deliver a package. If he is late, he has to pay the delivery cost. Henry lives in a not-to-distant future where temperatures are rising, the cost of living is out of control, and folks can’t get by without stealing. In order to earn money to keep his mother in a senior facility, Henry accepts a job from a friend to steal a black box that contains some sort of technology. Of course, the job does not work out well and he is thrust into another universe.

I read all 5 volumes and all of them were entertaining. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Dark

The Dark is a political thriller in comic book format. The plot concerns a worldwide cyberwar the U. S. has with Russia. 

The publisher's summary:

A short time after this international internet shutdown event known as "The Dark", we follow Carver, a former special forces super-soldier who after losing his eyes during this event, gets caught up on a mission hunting down Camille, a NSA analyst who has stolen dangerous information. With a potential war with China on the horizon, Carver and Camille are thrown together to get the world back on track while a shadowy force that is manipulating events is hot on their heels.

I loved this futuristic story. The plot is based on the use of the Stuxnet computer virus that Israel and the U. S. used against Iran several years ago. However, in this novel Russia has used it against the entire world. No more Internet use or electricity. Bioluminescence is used by the characters to tackle the dark. I am assuming the loss of the Net puts everyone in the Dark. Politics also plays a major part in the story. The U.S. is gearing up for war with China and has bombers on the way there. Texas has split from the U.S. Then we see a soldier with a service animal who's eyes glow. The soldier is hunting a transgender woman who just wants to become physically who she truly is. 

You can always tell when the illustrator is a man. The male characters are completely covered with body armor but the female character is always in a bikini. Sometimes she's just wearing underwear. It's unclear why female soldiers don't need to wear body armor. Kristian Donaldson is the artist. The colorist Lee Roughridge used a pallette of blues, teals and purples which I loved. The style of the art has a futuristic feel and I wondered whether it was drawn from a computer. That said, the art matched this futuristic story.

The Dark is light reading despite the political story. U am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Infinity Particle

In this gorgeous graphic novel by Wendy Xu, a young inventor falls for a lifelike AI robot and confronts questions of freedom and autonomy.

The publisher's summary:

Clementine Chang moves from Earth to Mars for a new start and is lucky enough to land her dream job with Dr. Marcella Lin, an Artificial Intelligence pioneer. On her first day of work, Clem meets Dr. Lin’s assistant, a humanoid AI named Kye. Clem is no stranger to robots—she built herself a cute moth-shaped companion named SENA. Still, there’s something about Kye that feels almost too human.

When Clem and Kye begin to collaborate, their chemistry sets off sparks. The only downside? Dr. Lin is enraged by Kye’s growing independence and won’t allow him more freedom. Plus, their relationship throws into question everything Clem thought she knew about AI. After all, if Kye is sentient enough to have feelings, shouldn’t he be able to control his own actions? Where is the line between AI and human? As her past and Kye’s future weigh down on her, Clem becomes determined to help him break free—even if it means risking everything she came to Mars for.

The plot premise is timely. We are just beginning to discuss the challenges AI poses as well as how it can be used to improve life on Earth. In this story, the author had secondary characters that were Asian, Muslim, disabled, African and white. She covered most of the protected classes! There was only one male character and he is the AI created robot that Clem fell in love with. All the inventors were women.

Clem had disagreements with Kye's creator Marcella concerning whether robots are their own people who should be treated with respect and allowed to have their own thoughts and interests. Marcella was not happy about the romance between Clem and Kye. I loved that one strip showed a character walking down a staircase and another person in a wheelchair using an adjacent ramp. None of the characters suffered any discrimination on Mars but they did talk about the challenges of life on Earth.

The art in this book is breathtaking and really pops in its minimal blue color palette. The pace was nice and fast but I expected that the plot would be more sci-fi with discussion on creating AI creatures. However, it was predominantly a romance story. That part was a disappointment to me. 

The novel was entertaining and a relaxing read. I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars.

Saga: Compendium One

Saga is a science fiction and fantasy comic book that is based on Star Wars. Compendium One contains serialized comic strips 1 through 54 in a gigantic, 1,328 page, 5 pound book.  Saga was written by Brian K. Vaughn, with Fiona Davis creating the artwork. Vaughn stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Issue 54 was the halfway point for the comic strip and that 108 total issues were planned for this story. It took him seven years to write these initial 54 issues.

This romance story opens with the birth of Hazel, who narrates the book as an adult character. Saga centers around her life. She is the child of Alana and Marko. Alana was born on the planet Landfall, has black skin and wings. Marko was born on Wreath, Landfall's moon, has white skin and horns. Wreath and Landfall have been at war for a long time as has the entire galaxy. Both Marko and Alana are considered AWOL from their military assignments and are being hunted by their respective militias not only because they are AWOL but because they breeded together. However, it is difficult to run with an infant and this new family runs across a few unusual characters while on the run to find a safe place to live.

Saga covers a few social issues such as interracial marriages, racism, gender identity, and violence. Marko and Alana are not the only soldiers to leave their military posts. The main reason they are being sought is because they broke society's rule against having sex with someone who is not like themselves and having the audacity to have a child together. If they are found, they will be killed but both sides want possession of Hazel. Several of the characters they come across while on the lam have gender identity issues. Some are gay. It seemed bizarre to be discussing this issue concerning nonhuman characters. Fiona Davis did a fabulous job drawing these creatures. They were entertaining to look at but to think of them as transgender, gay or something else was more humorous to me than being social commentary by the author.  There was alot of violence in the book but as far as the illustrations were concerned, this was science fiction violence. The social commentary on violence comes into the plot with Marko grappling with his military past. He hates that he has been violent and wants to promote peace. His problem is that to protect his family he may have to be violent.

I LOVED Saga. I am not a science fiction or fantasy fan but this story gripped me from the beginning and I binge read it this weekend. Unfortunately, Issue 55 is not out yet. The author and illustrator took a year sabbatical on writing this comic and nothing new has been published yet. It's killing me because Issue 54 ended with a cliffhanger. 

Definitely 5 out of 5 stars!