Les Mondes D'Aldebaran is a hard science-fiction series with a single story spread over four arcs consisting of five albums each, following humanity's colonisation of distant planets. A story that is never all that compelling, but doesn't deserve what the author does to it.
The strength of these comics is the environments; both the alien ecosystems of these worlds, and how the humans make their place among them. The art is short on details and shading, but makes it up with biomechanical care in creature designs and bringing life to landscapes. Death World tropes are still there, but subdued. I may not care for the characters, but I care about their world.
The art is also their most obvious flaw, in the human figures. Unnaturally stiff and uniform, sharing half a dozen facial expressions, they are bland at best, creepy at worst. I wish there were fewer close-ups, and especially less nudity. But deeper problems are in the themes and narrative.
One is very dry presentation. There's little (intentional) humour, the cast is defined mostly by their troubles and anxieties, and I could never care for the romantic entanglements. The antagonists are all one-note strawmen, even in the Betelgeuse arc where the story recognises that they have a point. But I like that it asks, a bit simplistically, some real questions about colonisation: who should sponsor and control such projects? How much should we change ecosystems to suit our needs? Would we recognise intelligent life that was different from us? But where the story finally fails is when it is derailed to push a clumsy message.
I have to reveal here that physics-bending beings lurk on these worlds and the plots are set off by their frictions with the colonists. At first very ambiguous, by the end of the Aldebaran arc it is clear that they are intelligent and have plans for humanity. I can point to The Expanse as this set-up done well, by focusing on human reactions. But here, the role of these aliens grows as each arc advances, and the story suffers for it.
The arcs follow a pattern that they start off with characters struggling to survive, understand or help in the face of calamities. It's tense and relatable. But towards the end their actions matter less and less as the alien powers take over and do the decisions. It's a deus ex machina in both the classical and modern senses. Any sense of mystery about their motives evaporates as it becomes clear that they are setting up the next arc. The nadir is the last album of Betelgeuse, which is one long infodump while the cast sit around doing nothing.
The author wants to make a statement about human nature, but it's banal and tangential to the story. It only comes out when characters openly state it. And it's ironic that a series that makes villains of organised religion treats aliens like deities.
Struggles with the ecology would make better stories. This series has strengths, but doesn't play to them
Good setting, dodgy storytelling
Les Mondes D'Aldebaran is a hard science-fiction series with a single story spread over four arcs consisting of five albums each, following humanity's colonisation of distant planets. A story that is never all that compelling, but doesn't deserve what the author does to it.
The strength of these comics is the environments; both the alien ecosystems of these worlds, and how the humans make their place among them. The art is short on details and shading, but makes it up with biomechanical care in creature designs and bringing life to landscapes. Death World tropes are still there, but subdued. I may not care for the characters, but I care about their world.
The art is also their most obvious flaw, in the human figures. Unnaturally stiff and uniform, sharing half a dozen facial expressions, they are bland at best, creepy at worst. I wish there were fewer close-ups, and especially less nudity. But deeper problems are in the themes and narrative.
One is very dry presentation. There's little (intentional) humour, the cast is defined mostly by their troubles and anxieties, and I could never care for the romantic entanglements. The antagonists are all one-note strawmen, even in the Betelgeuse arc where the story recognises that they have a point. But I like that it asks, a bit simplistically, some real questions about colonisation: who should sponsor and control such projects? How much should we change ecosystems to suit our needs? Would we recognise intelligent life that was different from us? But where the story finally fails is when it is derailed to push a clumsy message.
I have to reveal here that physics-bending beings lurk on these worlds and the plots are set off by their frictions with the colonists. At first very ambiguous, by the end of the Aldebaran arc it is clear that they are intelligent and have plans for humanity. I can point to The Expanse as this set-up done well, by focusing on human reactions. But here, the role of these aliens grows as each arc advances, and the story suffers for it.
The arcs follow a pattern that they start off with characters struggling to survive, understand or help in the face of calamities. It's tense and relatable. But towards the end their actions matter less and less as the alien powers take over and do the decisions. It's a deus ex machina in both the classical and modern senses. Any sense of mystery about their motives evaporates as it becomes clear that they are setting up the next arc. The nadir is the last album of Betelgeuse, which is one long infodump while the cast sit around doing nothing.
The author wants to make a statement about human nature, but it's banal and tangential to the story. It only comes out when characters openly state it. And it's ironic that a series that makes villains of organised religion treats aliens like deities.
Struggles with the ecology would make better stories. This series has strengths, but doesn't play to them