Review: Venus Rises – Exordium #1

Following on from the spotlight preview, here are my thoughts on Venus Rises – Exordium #1

Terry Holden, a single mother and Captain of a Venusian salvage ship, wants nothing more than to make an honest living. Her son, Percival, can’t wait to start his first year studying abroad at a prestigious Martian college. When the Venusian Resistance attacks a prominent corporate headquarters, Mars goes into lock-down. Percival is detained by Martian authorities and Terry quickly finds herself torn between staying neutral to protect her livelihood, or risk everything to save her son.

Hollister Pelt III is an Asset Protection Enforcer tasked to save the Shirokawa Corporation from a hostile takeover. For the last year, he’s been analyzing the disappearance of the mining vessel Ikarus (as seen in Series 1) and finally believes he knows the whereabouts of its very lucrative cargo. But some high ranking officials in the Mars Defense Directorate don’t want to see the Ikarus disaster resurrected… putting Hollister in their cross-hairs.

Story by: J. G. Birdsall
Art by: Thomas Garbarini
Cover by: Thomas Garbarini

We kick off with a really good info-dump. I like the timeline, and the short explainer which sets us up.

This issue spends a lot of its time setting up. There’s a lot to learn here and it does well showing the different views of this upcoming war.

The characters are getting well designed, with their views and issues on full show. There are some nice character moments as we see their motivations and feelings about the situation out in space and on Mars.

The difference between those out in space and those on Mars is well shown here, with some some smooth art – especially on Mars.

There’s some corporate goings-ons here, with some nice business bits here. I like the speech about saving the company and the relief that seems to be felt.

That goes a bit downhill at the end…

In all, this was a good primer for the series and has sufficient hooks for following issues, we’ve still got people to meet and issues to understand.

You can get Venus Rises in print and digitally here

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