Broken Frontier

Dead Space: Extraction reads like the diary or ship's log of Dr. Nicole Brennan, Senior Medical Officer aboard the USG Ishimura. An alien virus infected several members of the crew and the uninfected find themselves quarantined in the backup medical lab with sparse equipment and mounting casualties. Brennan tries to find a cure as more and more monsters wreak havoc aboard the ship.

This issue was my first exposure to the Dead Space concept, and it's easy to see why it would make an excellent if not entirely inspired video game, following the fairly typical horror/shooter format, a claustrophobic maze-like environment, and some nasty monsters to shoot at before their numbers overwhelm you. To get a better feel for the backstory, I tracked down the Dead Space: Downfall animated movie, and it was more or less the same. Quantities of gore, and blood, and shooting. The biggest shortcoming to both the movie and this one-shot is the real lack of character development and interaction. Though the comic does a better job with Brennan than the movie did with any of its principal characters.

The most intriguing element of the script were the references to the Unitologists, a future religion. Unfortunately, the concept is not developed or defined in the comic beyond a brief conversation where some are described as zealots. I am hoping the prior six issue mini-series explores the concept further, and fleshes out this future world a little better. Given the limited space of a one-shot, it's understandable that the level of background detail is lacking, but it really does weaken the experience. In all, Dead Space: Extraction is simple, straightforward but altogether forgettable. It owes a debt in style and subject matter to Alien, but falls far short of that movie. Again, I would like to read the longer graphic adaptation because given more space, perhaps the concept is better fleshed out. On its own, this comic is a brief lead in to a shooter video game and not much more. Which in all fairness, may be what they are trying for.

Even Ben Templesmith's art is a little ill suited to this. On 30 Days of Night, with dark basements, empty streets, and dagger fanged vampires, his dirty water colors make that setting come alive, even with the abstractions of his art. On board a space ship, that style muddies things a little too much. The computer screens, med-labs and such don't feel like a spaceship. The monsters are delightful, however, and he continues to paint blood and gore with relish.

I think the comic will probably appeal to gamers and completists, but to a casual comic reader, there isn't much here to really sink your teeth into.