Review: Battlestar Galactica - Twilight Command #1

Dynamite are looking expand their BSG line, but rather than give us origin books of what could’ve happened before the destruction of the colonies, they have taken a leaf from the plotting of their original cast series by pitching this tale slap at the beginning of season 3.Â In the process, we have switched from humans fleeing Cylons in space to Cylons babysitting the remnants of said group of humans.

For those who may not remember, season 3 sees the large part of the fleet that had settled on New Caprica fall under the cosh of Balter’s rule with his toaster buddies as back up.Â But for every occupation, there will always be a resistance and in this case the resistance is a bit of a ragtag group who also possess a surprise in the armament department.Â Familiar characters are thrust in tandem with new ones as the untold story of the rebels of New Caprica is finally told.

The book is written by Michael Moreci, whose work you may have read on Archie meets Batman ’66 and Wasted Space.Â Moreci has to deal with both the benefits of writing in an already heavily developed universe and the problems; the benefit is that existing situations need not be explained in too much depth as the target audience for the book is the already the existing BSG fan-base; the difficulty of course is that the finality of the story has already been told.Â Moreci therefore has to build on the new characters, giving the reader a reason to care about the series.Â As this is the first issue, it’s hard to see how that element will play out, though Moreci adds enough of a twist to whet my curiosity.Â Dialogue wise, the existing crew sound like they should, Tigh is at his curmudgeon best and Cheif Tyol is up to his neck in all sorts of skulduggery, with insults flying around adding to the fun and tension.

Artist Breno Temura work has been seen on Batgirl and the Birds of Prey as inker.Â Given my oft stated dislike for that book, I am not going to hold that against him.Â Now, given a full artist role, Temura doesn’t disappoint with strong and stylish frameworks and facial close-ups that reminds me of John Romita Jr. in places.Â As Temura is known as an inker, he takes on this role in this book.Â The results are a little inconsistent, in my opinion, with overly inked panels detracting from the overall style.Â It may be that as a full artist, Temura is too close to the art to see his inks impact.Â Whatever the reason, a different ink collaboration may have yielded a more polished final product.Â This being the revamped BSG; it’s dark world of desolate hope in place of desolate fear;Â colorist Dijjo Lima supplies the required level of grit, dirt and hopelessness with a dour yet effective scheme.Â Taylor Esposito again demonstrates why he is a much sought after letterer who delivers in every text panel and word balloon.

Season 3 is probably one of my favourite of the new Galactica series, mainly in part due to the change in the status quo, which was expertly ended with the Battlestar jumping into the atmosphere to rescue it’s landlocked fleet mates.Â If the this comic book run is an innovative as the season it is based within, we BSG fans should be in for a ride.

So Say We All.

Writing – 4.5 Stars
Art – 3.5 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Written by; Michael Moreci
Art by;Â Breno Temura
Colors by; Dijjo Lima
Letters by; Taylor Esposito
Published by; Dynamite Entertainment

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network