for a plethora of requests from
comics fans requesting more diversity from U.S. comics a multi-racial cast with an Hispanic hero, strong
female characters minus the skimpy outfits, and not a superhero in sight. Happily, though this politically
correct set-up does feel a bit too contrived from the outside, the story and the characters combine to make a
satisfying and action-driven sci-fi tale unburdened with a specifice message. It remind readers of what
great fun barrelling around the sky in a technologically brilliant fighter could be. On Earth in 2071, after a
massive war with an alien enemy, humans are left with only one defense, the unbeatable Shock Rockets.
These agile and lethal fighters are a combination of unknown alien technology and man's greatest
engineering and are piloted by an elite team of fighters. Alejandro Cruz, working at a garbage plant
alongside his whole family, dreams of becoming a pilot. He tinkers with left over bits of flyers to create a
ship for himself, figuring even if there's no chance in hell that he'll ever make it to a Shock Rocket, at least
he can create for himself a taste of the experience. Little does he know that his first wobbly (and forbidden)
flight lands him smack in the middle of a fight between the Shock Rockets and an alien attack. When one
of the Shock Rockets crashes in front of him, the pilot dying, he reacts on instinct and takes the helm. To
everyone's surprise, but most especially to his own astonishment, he flies expertly through the attack and
wins a spot on the team. His fellow pilots are not exactly pleased to have him on board, especially as his
arrival meant the death of one of their best. What none of them suspect, however, is that Cruz is the key to
unleashing the Rockets as yet untapped power. Cruz is also discovering that his allies and enemies are not
so easily identified and that the politics surrounding his team are far more complex than he has any hope of
navigating. Stuart Immonen's cinematic art is the right combination of character focus and the energetic
action sequences showing off the design and strategy behind the many dogfights and flights within the
story. This comic should appeal to fans of such classic sci-fi as Robert Heinlein's adventures and Orson
Scott Card's Ender's Game as well as anyone who's ever quoted, I feel the needthe need for speed! and
meant it.
reviews by
robin

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Chobits
Volume 1
ISBN: 1031514925
by CLAMP Tokyopop 2001
"Whatever happens, you must remember this: no matter how cute she is, no matter how human she seems,
don't fall in love with her. She'll just make you cry." When Hideki Motosuwa finds one of the new
"Perscoms" (short for "personal computers," of course) abandoned in a back alley, he's sure his luck has
changed. Whether the change is for the better or the worse remains to be seen, but with his hectic schedule
Hideki thinks he needs all the help he can get. Perscoms, all built to look like beautiful young women, will
perform any task from household chores to language lessons, advanced mathematics, and accounting.
Unfortunately, instead of a working Perscom Hideki finds himself saddled with a mysterious, artificially
intelligent housemate who lacks the software needed to perform any of a normal computer's functions.
Inexplicably, she is still able to move and to say her name: "Chi." Awakened into the world with no
knowledge or data of her own, Chi must learn everything from Hideki, whose main concerns are still how
to pass his college entrance examinations while holding down a full-time job. A 12-year-old computer
genius adds to the mystery by suggesting that Chi may be one of the mythical Chobits, "computers of
legend" capable of rational thought and independent reasoning. Now it's up to Hideki to teach Chi how to
live and behave like a human, though he must never forget that in the end she is not flesh and blood but a
powerful machine.
review by
Alison

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Clover
by CLAMP
Tokyopop 2001
Clover also crosses the boundaries of girls or boys comics, the two audiences CLAMP commonly writes
for, by packing a wrenching examination of love into an action-packed drama full of genetic
experimentation and explosive battles. As is common in the best Japanese work, Clover explores all of the
usual questions around genetic engineering people as weapons or slaves -- there's a reason Blade Runner
remains one of the most recognized Western films in Japan. At the same time, Clover's focus on the people
involved, and not their genetic make-up, makes the story a uniquely human story at it's core.
read more...

If you like, you can skip to individual volumes in the series:
Clover Volume 1

Clover Volume 2

Clover Volume 3

Clover Volume 4

reviews by
robin

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A Distant Soil
By Colleen Doran
The Gathering: ISBN: 1887279512 The Ascendant: ISBN: 1582400180
The Aria: ISBN: 1582402019
Image Comics 2001
Aliens are about to attack! The only ones who can save us are a motley band of humans! I can hear you all
saying, "Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before." Ha! Collen Doran's great trick is to take a classic plot from
seemingly every sci-fi novel known to man and make it new, exciting, and not just a little bit funny! Yes,
there are the usual trappings of sci-fi -- advanced societies gone horribly wrong, reluctant heroes, psionic
powers, political intrigue, and battles in space. Embrace the sci-fi space opera (you know you love it) and
you'll find yourself sucked in to an epic full of laugh-out-loud humor, love, revenge, and loyalty.
review by
robin

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Orbiter
ISBN: 1401200567
by Warren Ellis
Art by Colleen Doran, Dave Stewart and Clem Robbins
Vertigo/DC Comics 2003
I grew up with two physicists for parents. We often had great dinner conversations about subatomic
particles and cosmology. When I was ten, I was allowed to stay up late to watch the first episode of Star
Trek: The Next Generation. My friends and family can tell you that started a loyalty right then to space
exploration and the Trek universe. As I grew up, I was allowed to raid my father's expansive collection of
classic science fiction, from 50s era onward. I've always loved the wonder and yearning for exploration that
space still holds, and it dismays me to see the lack of wonder many of my fellows feel for the possibilities
space holds.
Seeing my history, you can probably guess why Orbiter is definitely the book for me. The basic story is
classic sci-fi through and through: after a space shuttle, the Orbiter, mysteriously disappears without a
whisper of warning, the U.S. manned exploration of space is completely suspended. Ten years later, that
missing shuttle returns to an abandoned Kennedy Space Center full of mysteries and carrying an apparently
insane captain, the only surviving member of the mission. Old experts, from ex-astronauts, physicists, and a
psychiatrist, are brought in to discover Orbiter's secrets. They, of course, discover much more than they can
comprehend. Thus follows a tale of broken dreams and rerouted destinies suddenly put back on course,
whether the human race is ready or not.
Warren Ellis always writes passionate, critical dynamite, and Colleen Doran, ever since I devoured
A
Distant Soil
, is an intriguing and appropriate choice for a creative collaborator. As it turns out, they're also
great friends and space enthusiasts. In the end, Orbiter is a story about not giving up the dream of space.
With email, voice recognition, cell phones, and the Internet, we're already living in the science fiction I
grew up with. But where's the shuttle to Mars? Where are the cities on the moon? Ellis acknowledges in his
introduction (which I admit made me get teary), this title had a frightening prescience within its echo of the
recent loss of the Columbia shuttle and the grounding of the U. S. space program. The necessity of books
like Orbiter, and their ability to make us dream, can be summed up in his words, "Human spaceflight
remains experimental. It is very dangerous. It demands great ingenuity. But we are old enough, now, to do
these things. Growing up is hard. But we cannot remain children, standing on the shore or in front of the TV set."
review by
robin

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Red Star: The Battle of Kar Dathra's Gate
ISBN: 1582401977
by Christian Gossett, Bradley Kayl
Image Comics 2001
This is one of the few graphic novels I've come across that made me sit back and just stare. The artwork, a
combination of traditional illustration techniques and the 3D computer imaging used in the finest computer
games, is absolutely stunning. Lucky for us, the story is equally brilliant. A reworking of world history,
The Battle of Kar Dathra's Gate follows one Comrade Sorcerer through her brutal memories of the title
battle in a conflict which mirrors Russia's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. On that day, she lost both her faith
in her country and, more personally, her beloved husband. Her story, however, is much more than it seems,
and destiny has greater plans for both her and her husband.
review by
robin

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Red Star: Nokgorka
ISBN: 097147141X
by Christian Gossett and Bradley Kayl
Art by Christian Gossett, Snakebite, Paul Schrier, and Richard Starkings
Archangel Studios 2002
The audacity of reworking Russian history and filling it with technology-driven sorcery and mythological
destinies still wows me when I consider Red Star � the authority and brilliance with which Team Red Star