Port Of Earth automatically made it to my excitement list when I saw the concept — aliens use water for fuel and made earth into a stopping point along their transit routes. They built a port, which is supposed to be away from human society and supposed to not have them interact with humans, in exchange, humanity got to get access to unlimited power, ending our energy dependency. Wow!
Of course, eventually, aliens act as tourist, and problems occur. Those problems lead to a lot of deaths in situations, so an agency is formed to both protect the aliens and the humans from each other.
The drawings are pretty solid, though the colors are a bit washed out — I guess which was an intentional stylistic choice, but it does make a little monotony to the issue, which is amplified because of the pacing.
The pacing of this book is really out of whack. It opens up with several pages of backstory “telling” which probably could have been condensed some. We don’t actually meet the main characters until the staple page — halfway through the book. So the set up, while it’s a great concept, is a lot.
Once we get there, it’s very slow. The second half of the issue is pretty much filled with talking heads, that, with the washed out colors.
Now it sets up an interesting story where these ESA agents are going after an alien, and the media is actually going to watch them with drones to show what they do.
The next high point in t he story is the characters. They’re well written, rounded, and people you can connect to as a reader. The we have one “straight guy” character and one over the top type who seems hellbent on getting them into trouble. The relationship between the main character and his woman is very well done also.This plus the concept and solid line art is enough I’m certainly going to pick up a second issue.
There were a couple dialogue spots where it could have used some editing. One panel has two complex sentences end in the same word choices in a row, which looks a little clunky, and there’s a couple of other spots that could use tightening up. This didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment or the characters.
There’s a lot of potential here, but the issue itself suffered from those pacing issues. Hopefully as the arc continues we get past the infodumpy portions. It’s worth continuing reading, and I’ll review issue #2 next week (it’s already out) to let you know if it picks up.
7/10
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