Dead Space Liberation (OGN)

"This is just not my fucking day" - John Carver

And so we come to the final comic in the Dead Space videogame exapnded universe and thanks to the failure of Dead Space 3 it's unlikely we'll be getting any more in the future.  This one takes place between Dead Space 2 and 3 and gives us background on Carver, the co-op character from Dead Space 3.  Now if you've read my previous looks at the Dead Space comics you might be expecting another moan about Dead Space 3 and how much it sucked.  But no, I changed my mind.  Didn't expect that did you?  My mistake was to treat it as a horror game, when really it's much more of an action game.  Readjust your expectations and it's actually pretty good, despite the last piece of DLC torching the franchise and rendering all of Isaac's struggles for naught.  And if you're wondering what the hell I am talking about well here's what the Dead Space franchise is all about: Dead Space (the first game) saw you as a space engineer called Isaac Clarke, whose ship is damaged after it receives a distress call from the "Planet Cracker" mining ship the Ishimura. He is sent aboard to repair the Ishimura and get it moving again while both investigating the disappearence of the Ishimura's crew (and the colony on the planet below) and simultaneously fending off mutated, alien zombie creatures.  It turns out those alien zombie creatures are the crew, resurrected and deformed by an alien artefact called "The Red Marker."  This Marker is also the focus of a particularly zealous religion called Unitology who worship it as a means of bringing them together in peaceful coexistence, while it actually causes madness and death to those close by, and finally brings those dead back to life as homicidal "necromorphs".

The first Dead Space comic was a prequel, Dead Space Salvage was set just afterwards.  Dead Space 2 (game) saw a "Black Marker" induced outbreak on a huge city complex on Titan called The Sprawl, and Dead Space 3 (game) saw an investigation into the real motivation of the markers which was to create and bring enough necromorphs together to form "Brethren Moons" which then begin attack Earth in the final moments of the Dead Space 3 post-game DLC to the horror of Isaac and Carver who thought they had saved the day at the end of the main game.  Phew, that's a lot of backstory for a series of games about space zombies, I've had to summarise a story in a couple of paragraphs that takes place across four games themselves, three comicbooks, two anime films and a novel of dubious qua-li-tee.  So lets enjoy our final visit to the franchise with this story, by the same team behind Dead Space Salvage, writer Ian Edginton and artist Christopher Shy.

John Carver.

We start on the planet Uxor and EarthGov sergeant John Carver is having an argument with his wife Damara over his commlink.  She works with the Black Marker they have there (if you're wondering why people keep making Markers despite them being the cause of space zombies, it's because they're disguised as generators of free energy as this Earth civilisation is desperate for renewable energy) when suddenly the Marker shield is pulled back.

Damara urgently calls him back and tells him to grab their son Dylan and get down to the blast shelters.  Then someone fires on the Marker, exposing it.  An EMP pulse follows.  Carver desperately tries to call into Central but gets nothing.  Then a ship that was in low orbit falls from the sky, the EMP pulse having taken them out.

Carver starts making his way to the Marker to find Damara and Dylan.  Necromorphs have started to be born and he has to fight his way through.  He makes it inside and says to himself:

Carver: "God.. if you're watching over this hell... I never asked you for anything in my life... I'm begging you now.. let them be safe."

He hears some people ahead and stops to listen.  They are Danik, a high ranking Unitologist and his minions.  They sabotaged the Marker, but the crashing spaceship wasn't in their plans.  Then over Carver's commlink comes someone slurring, "Jjjohn..." and the Unitologists here that and capture Carver.

Captured by Unitologists.

They tie him up and beat him to find out who was working on the Marker.  John manages to spit out a "Your mom" reply.  Danik is unamused and tells him minions to shoot him, but then one of them discovers who he is and that his wife is one of the scientists they are after.  This incites a rage in Carver and he manages to bust his way free and runs off to find his wife and kid.

He arrives at their quarters and sees Damara standing with his back to him, she turns and reveals she now a necromorph, as it their son Dylan.  A distraught Carver has to shoot them both.  He then puts his gun under his chin to commit suicide so he can be with them when a call comes over the commlink for Damara.

Carver's distress at killing his family.

Carver picks up the call and tells the person on the other end that Damara is dead.  The person asks if the "data stick" is still there and he says yes.  Then the voice recognises him and introduces herself as "Ellie Langford", she is with her boyfriend Captain Robert Norton, they met when they were stationed together at Haven. Damara contacted her during her Marker research:

Ellie: "She discovered that Marker tampering went way back, past Earth-Gov to the old Sovereign Colonies Administration."

Danik and his people are here to find the data she accumulated.  Her ship was in high orbit so escaped the EMP, they land and pick Carver up.  But unbeknowst to them, the Unitologists are monitoring their communications and are lying in wait.

Ellie reaches the rendevous point but Carver isn't there.   He tells her he thought they might be listening in so used her as bait.  He sees them on her flank and snipes them with a sniper rifle.  He's attacked by necromorphs but fights them off and the ship the Eudora collects him and Ellie safely.

Suddenly necromorphs.

On board with the data secure, Carver asks what it is and why did he have to shoot his wife and kid?  Norton says it's need to know only, but Ellie says he has a right to know.  Damara was working for them but couldn't tell anyone not even her husband.  As a "data archeaologist she was able able to locate, retrieve and rebuild information from countless redundant systems."
Ellie then plugs in the data stick saying maybe it's better if Carver heard it in her own words.   Damara appears on screen saying is anyone is hearing this she is most likely dead and the information must not fall into Unitologist hands.  She found evidence that pre-Earth Gov a master signal that controlled all Markers was found.

The Soveriegn government built three markers to triangulate the parent signal, then soon after purged all data from their systems about it, but she was able to repair some of it.  She found the location of the triangulation station "the Ptolemy Array" which is in the files.  She admits it's been hard keeping this secret from John, "if he knew the danger, he'd try to stop me."  But she has to do this, for their child, for all children.

Ellie says if John wants to honour her memory and avenge her, he should join up with them. He agrees and they fly to the location of the Ptolemy Array. They find it derelict with no life-signs and they board it.  Ellie manages to reboot the two-hundred year old system, John thanks her but Ellie says it was Damara who came up with the "restart protocols."

The Ptolemy array.

She starts triangulating the master signal and tells Carver his wife was a "brave and intelligent woman.  None of this would have been possible without her."  The Markers deploy and the signal triangulates.  It's too far out to "shock" (FTL travel) to.  They need to shock a beacon out first and follow that. Carver says "Keyhole station" has that facility and they leave but not before destroying the Ptolemy Array to prevent others using it.

As the ship travels to its next destination Ellie tells Norton that she has checked the data and big chunks of it are in "Marker language".

Ellie: "Without a primer we can't read them.  Robert, we need this information.  It's the largest target cache. We - "
Norton: "I know where this is going.  Save your breath.  The answer's no."

The only person who can read Marker language is Isaac Clarke, Ellie's old boyfriend.  Norton says the Unitologist  will be watching "that lunatic's" every move.  Ellie says Norton needs to get over himself.

Snippily Norton tells her to check on Carver, "that's what your into right?  Screwed up basket cases?"  He says now they have the files they don't need Carver, he has plenty of soldiers on the ship.  Ellie calls him an "asshole" and goes to find Carver.

Angst!

He is sad and beating himself up about Damara and Dylan deserving someone better than him, that his inability to keep his temper meant he never got promoted and dragged her from one "shit-hole posting to another".

Carver: "I got angry, bitter for not giving them the life they deserved.  For having my boy grow up on a bleak barracks world.  For watching Damara side-line her career.  Most of all I was angry at myself for letting it happen.  I'll never see them again.  Never be able to tell them I am sorry."
Ellie comforts him as he says he'll finish what she started, it's the only thing he can do for her.

They arrive at Keyhole Station, but no one is responding to their hails.  They decide on a low impact incursion to see what's going on in there.  Inside, it turns out the place is overrun with necromorphs.  There is a mass attack, confusion and Carver sets off a grenade to take them out.

More necromorphs on Keyhole station,

Norton says they are going to go through the main access.  Carver says they should go around and Norton's plan will get them killed.  Then more necromorphs attack, and Carver says they need to do things his way. They open a door and are confronted by a huge necromorph.

Then the Eudora calls in, it is under attack from an unidentified vessel. Then a shot misses them and hits the station.  The resulting explosion seperates Norton and Carver from Ellie. She and a woman called Jennifer Santos fight off the necromorphs.  She tells Norton she'll make her way to the command room and they can meet there.

Dare to be badass Carver.

The attacking ship belongs to Danik and the Unitologists.   Danik says to keep targeting their ship while a boarding party travels to the station.  They had tagged the Eudora and the fact that it's are here means they've discovered co-ordinates.  "We move with holy purpose now" says Danik.

As Carver and Norton move through the station, Ellie calls them and says they are trapped on the hanger deck.  If Norton and Carver can get to the control deck they can activate the shock gate and she can take a sub-light flyer through it to the destination co-ordinates.  Norton and Carver are faced with another huge necromorph on the way to the control deck.  They blast it to bits and continue on their way.

They make it to Command and Control  Ellie and the others with her are in the flyer.  She has a shock beacon, when they get to Tau Voluntis (where the third game is set) she'll activate it and they can follow in the Eudora.  She tells Norton, "you're still an ass.  But I love you anyway."

On the Unitologist ship they detect the shockpoint generators cycling up. Danik says it's the "light and the way, the key to what lies beyond".

Danik: "Such a priviledge belongs to the faithful not these heretic filth.  Shoot down any ship that departs for the gate."

He's then told the station's weapons grid has just gone live and is targeting them.  All weapons fire on the Unitologist's ship.

Ellie's ship is finally prepped and after she admits to Norton that she is scared it shocks through the gateway.  The crippled Unitologist ship tries to follow, and Carver and Norton start shutting the gateway down.  They can't shut it down in time so blow the gate up instead.

Ellie departs for Tau Volantis.

The damaged Unitologist ship withdraws for now.  Carver and Norton travel back to the Eudora as the station is starting to fall apart. Back on the ship Norton says "we won".  Carver responds that Ellie is trapped on Tau Volantis, everyone on Uxor and Keyhole station are dead or worse, "how is that a victory?"
Norton says denying the Unitologists his wife's data was a victory or Uxor wouldn't have been the only world to fall. "Hundreds died to save millions" he says.  However without Damara they can't translate the Marker language, Carver asks if there is anyone else?  And Norton reluctantly says yes, a man called "Isaac Clarke".  And with that the story ends.

Isaac Clarke and a looming Marker.

And so with heavy heart I finish my final journey through the Dead Space EU.  Dead Space 3, a victim of ridiculous sales expectations sank a franchise that still had much potential and interesting stories to tell.  If you are wondering what happens next, Isaac does indeed get inviegled into joining them as they uncover the history of the Markers on Tau Volantis. Unfortunately Carver is only playable if there is two of you and so I guess I'll never be able to complete his side missions where he deals with the PTSD caused by having to shoot his wife and kid during the necromorph outbreak.  Annoying stuff.  Once again I like the artwork in this book, I run hot and cold on painted artwork, but sometimes it works for me and it does here, capturing the claustrophobic nature of the ships and the things that will come squirming out of the darkness to attack people.  I really, really hope one day the Dead Space fanchise gets resurrected.  The comics have been entertaining and have provided useful additional backstory to the games.  It seems a shame to waste a vibrant universe of bizarre monsters, religious maniacs, evil artefacts, ace female pilots and gruff soldiers but what do I know? I only, like own everything to do with this franchise, the only videogame EU in which I do so. Anyway, this comic will mean nothing to a non fan of the series (and really I commend your patience if you aren't and got this far because you're probably very confused), but for those who do like the games this is well worth a look as are the rest of the comics.  And that's it for Dead Space... for now.

Dead Space: Salvage (OGN)

"I swear, If I make it out of this, I am blowing the goddamn whistle" - Schneider

Haven't done a videogame tie-in for a while now, truthfully finding ones worth spending money on is getting harder, but if you ignore the franchise destroying game Dead Space 3, the Dead Space stories usually delivers for me.  I covered the prequel comic to the first Dead Space game here, and this comic takes place immediately after the first game.  For a quick reminder of the plot of the main series I'll just recycle a little from my intro to the last comic: Dead Space (the first game) saw you as a space engineer called Isaac Clarke, whose ship is damaged after it receives a distress call from the "Planet Cracker" mining ship the Ishimura. He is sent aboard to repair the Ishimura and get it moving again while both investigating the disappearence of the Ishimura's crew (and the colony on the planet below) and simultaneously fending off mutated, alien zombie creatures.  It turns out those alien zombie creatures are the crew, resurrected and deformed by an alien artefact called "The Red Marker."  This Marker is also the focus of a particularly zealous religion called Unitology who worship it as a means of bringing them together in peaceful coexistence, while it actually causes madness and death to those close by, and finally brings those dead back to life as homicidal "necromorphs".  This graphic novel like the previous trade has an interesting art style this time making use of heavily painted, photographic likenesses and floating text rather than speech bubbles.  It takes a little getting used to but helps conjure up a horrific and tense atmosphere as the team of illegal miners and scavengers called "The Magpies" and the military team sent by the Earth government race to be the first to claim the Ishimura and the Marker that they believe to still be inside it.

It starts with a nightmare.  Captain Benedict Malyech of the Magpie ship "Black Beak" is dreaming of monsters.  He is woken by his second-in-command Julia Copland who informs him they have found some asteroids with valuable mineral desposits in them.  On the Magpie ship "Hunter's Moon", Captain Jessica Li is informed of the discovery by Malyech who says he'll inform the other two ships, "The Sunset" captained by Gatura Okeke and "The Liberte" captained by Bellevin.

Li and Schneider.

Li asks her second-in-command Stefan Schneider how full the "Nest" is, he says it's at 85%, the Nest is a large ring being towed by them that when they "lay eggs" in it ie: bombs, sends out a shockwave that softens the asteroids up for the mining of their resources.

Just outside the asteroid belt is a government blockade, incoming is a ship containing Defence Secretary David Chang, he is informed that the Ishimura still hasn't been located, there is "particle inteference" and as the system has been off-limits for two hundred years they have no long range scans.  Chang says he has no classified scans either and the listening post went dark weeks before.  The man he is talking to says maybe the Ishimura has been destroyed.

Chang: "Don't even think it.  The Marker was on that ship and if I leave  without it it, some teenage punk will have his feet under my desk before I even reach earth orbit."

The Magpies at work.

Inside the asteroid belt, the four captains discuss mining the asteroids and the blockade, which they don't think they'll be able to get past with the shock-ring.  They wonder about the planet Aegis VII, which had an illegal "planet-crack" performed on it, Li think this means the government won't stick around for long after they investigate it.

Schneider: "Hopefully enough to rip CEC a new asshole.  Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys."

They then get to mining, activating the shock-ring and sending out an energy pulse.  While they work, they chat.  Bellevin says the government and CEC is full of Unitologists, so "maybe Okeke and Malyech could give them the secret handshake to let us all through the barricade."  One of them retorts that the church isn't like that, then Li tells them all to shut up. "I'm already sick of your voices" she says testily.

On board the government ship, Chang is greeted by a mysterious scar-faced individual known only as an "Oracle".  The Oracle says he is permitted to intefere in military and civilian operations when they involve their priorities of "retrieval and secrecy.  Especially secrecy".

While the miners mine, they banter with each other.  Schneider hacks the comms to display a text message on everyones screen that says "Okeke + Malyech 4 Eva".  Then some strange inteference starts showing up, they activate the shock-ring again but a huge energy backblast hits it and Bellevin's ship sending it careering off towards the blockade.

The Ishimura appears.

Li sends her two crew members in small shuttle like ships to chase it down and they grab it with tethers that slows it down long enough for Li's ship to catch up and stop it drifting any further, the crew are lost however.  Li says the shock-ring has been vaporised so time to cut their losses, then Schneider says he has identified the ship that appeared with the energy wave, it's the Ishimura.

Li tells Malyech to do a flyby of the outside, while she, Schneider and Okeke go and look inside.  They scan the ship and see it is badly damaged with quarantine in place all over it.  Malyech tells them the hull is "shot to crap" and it's only good for salvage now.  Copland says they should ransom it to the CEC or Earth government.  Malyech says that wouldn't be a good idea as most of them are criminals with open warrants, they'd just be thrown in jail.  Then he spots some odd spikes sticking out of the hull.

The mysterious spikes are spotted.

Inside the others find a right old mess.  The walls are smeared with organic matter which is 70% human.  Schneider worries that they did this with the shock-ring:

Schneider: "There's been cases before.  Bad shock-points that smear the crew all over the walls... did we kill the planet-cracker's crew?"

Li says of course not, the ship hasn't supported a crew in a very long time.  They start making for the bridge, repairing malfunctioning doors as they go.

Malyech suits up and floats out of the ship to investigate the spikes.  He realises it might have something to do with his religion then he has a vision of him kneeling by the Marker and being consumed and transformed by it.  His crew reel him back in and take samples of the spikes.

Malyech hallucinates the Marker.

The others walk through the ship assessing the damage and the possibility of salvage parts of, seemingly unconcerned about the "slaughterhouse" they are travelling through.  Schneider checks his radiation detector which he sets to verbally update him automatically when the rad-count rises.

Li asks Okeke if he thinks the ship can be repaired, or is it scrap?  Okeke says "scrap" but either way it's worth a fortune to them.  They should break it down into parts while they wait for the blockade to lift, then hire another Nest and transport the bits away in secret. Schneider wonders if the Ishimura is why there is a blockade and has a bad feeling about all this.  Li says she's not going to lose a big payday because "you're freaked out."

They go to the bridge where they'll meet up with Malyech and his crew.  On the bridge they discuss what they know.  Something mysterious is happening on the planet nearby, the Ishimura and the CEC performed an illegal planet-crack, the logs are gone due to the system failures on board.  Li wonders how this ended up killing the crew.  Then Malyech appears and shows them the spikes, Okeke immediately recognises them.

Malyech: "You're looking at pieces of a holy artifact... shards from a Marker!"

He says the goverment must be there to shut the system down and cover up the existence of the Marker like they did two hundred years ago.  Li says they can ransom these to the Unitologists for big money.  Angrily Malyech slaps her, shouting "Heathen!"

Dissension in the ranks.

Li punches him out and tells someone to find the brig and put him in it to calm down for a few hours.  Copland is angry at this and yells at her not "showing your peers some respect".  Copland accompanies the man carrying Maylech to the brig as Malyech rambles about them not understanding.  They put him in the brig and as the door closes he turns and looks at Copland oddly, then says "goodbye."

Up on the bridge, Schneider has managed to extract some of what's left of the ship's records and discovered that they pulled an entire Marker off the planet. Okeke asks if it is still aboard and Schneider says "far as I can tell - yeah."  Okeke says they can't let the government get their hands on it.  Then they are alerted to the fact Copland has stolen some of the Marker fragments and is heading towards the blockade, "the bitch is going to sell us out!"

Li says they have to repair the ship so they can get a Nest to move the Marker with.  She sends Okeke and his crew to engineering to try and repair the shock-point and leaves Schneider and the others on the bridge checking for government ships.  She is going to go and see if Malyech has come to his senses.

Copland meets the Oracles.

On board the main government ship, Copland shows the fragments to Chang who takes her to The Oracles.   He leaves her with him as she says they can make a deal, right?  While The Oracle interviews her, her source vector is traced and they pin-point roughly where she came from inside the asteroid belt. 

Chang sends a small military crew to board the Ishimura and arrest the Magpies.  The Oracle finishes speaking with Copland.  He says she did the right thing coming to him.  She asks if "I get a reward or something?"  The Oracle's ring glows and she slumps forwards dead in a pool of blood, "..or something" he says dispassionately.

Inside Malyech's mind he is speaking to "Bellevin" (one of the hallmarks of being affected by the Marker is seeing and hearing dead people).  Malyech says he needs "something to make him whole."  "Bellevin" responds, "you already have it."  And Malyech transforms into a necromorph.  Up on the bridge Venschiff suddenly attacks the others in a fit of paranoia and Schneider has to knock him out.

Malyech transforms.

They get access to more of the ships logs and discover the whole colony and ship went crazy from the Marker.  Wenbo says "so it's fucking with us, too?"  But Schneider says it's odd because the Marker isn't on the ship anymore, then he looks at the fragments and realises they might be all that's left of it.  He radios down to Li about the attack and says Malyech probably won't be getting better anytime soon and also that "something big" happened aboard the ship.

Li keeps hearing something moving near her but can't see what it is.  She says they probably have about an hour before the government get there, so if they can't repair before then, they should make themselves scarce.  Then the being that was Malyech spears her through the chest with his long knife like appendages, as Schneider desperately calls her name over the comm-link.

The others decide to go and find her.  They open the bridge door and are faced with shreiking knife-tentacled death.  All but Schneider is killed by the necromorphs as he manges to fend them off him for now.  He calls Okeke and tells him to take his crew and evacuate, but the necromorphs kill them as well, only Schneider is left out of all the Magpies.

Schneider is all that's left.

Two Oracles arrive secretly onto the ship, having flown in on a stealth ship.  They aren't fazed by what they see and think that reanimation having begun will make their mysterious "job" easier.  The military crew approach the Ishimura and hail Schneider telling the Magpies to surrender.  Schneider says he knows they are after the Marker, so if they allow them to keep the ship for salvage they can have it.  Would they like to meet in the cargo to discuss it?  The military agree and pilot the ship into the bay.

The Oracles realise Schneider spoofed his transmission and is actually on the bridge.  They decide not to inform the military of this, their deaths will buy them time to reach the bridge themselves.  The soldiers disembark and scan for the Marker.  When they realise it and no one is there, they are attacked by a huge number of necromorphs.

The military are surprised by the necromorphs.

Schneider is busy killing some himself when quarantine kicks in and his little radiation detector informs him verbally of the rise in the rad-count.  Schneider then sees the Oracles approaching and their stealth ship on the monitors. As the last of the military is killed, the Oracles think that Schneider can tell them where the Marker is. 

They arrive on the bridge and can't find him, but they find more of the Marker fragments that pretty much tell them the Marker had been destroyed.  They change their priorities to finding Schneider to prevent him going public with what he knows.  Schneider has escaped the bridge quarantine by putting on an mining exo-suit and going outside the ship.

However necromorphs can survive a vacuum, and the Oracles are in hot pursuit.  Suddenly a huge necromorph rises up in front of him, but the Oracles gun it down.  "Guess they want me alive for now" thinks Schneider and he uses a hatch to go back inside the ship and heads for the shuttlebay.  Unfortunately the Oracles know the layout better than him and cut him off and they confront each other.

Schneider and the Oracles meet.

Schneider holds up his radiation detector and bluffs that he has remote piloted the shock-ring into the Ishimura's engine bay and set it for maximum blast radius.  The Oracles say he doesn't have the balls.  Schneider responds that his crew is all dead, the Marker is in bits and if they don't kill him he'll rot in jail for the rest of his life.  he literally has nothing left to lose.  He wonders why they are chasing him, not killing him.

Oracle: "We need to know what you know.  What you saw."

Schneider: "You could have just asked".

Oracle: "You don't possess the language to tell us."

Schneider says the monsters are part of it, it makes people crazy and turns them into space zombies.  The Oracle says the monsters are an unimportant side effect.  The other one says the knowledge Schneider has now, "is worth a fortune".

Schneider tries to barter the Marker fragments for his freedom when his radiation monitor pipes up about the increased rad-count and reveals his bluff.  He darts through a hatchway and shuts it on the outstretched arm of one of the Oracles severing it.  The necromorphs close in on the Oracles, "too many.  We are screwed" one of them says.

Serves you right Oracles!

Slumped on the other side is Schneider who think the same.  Then he notices the severed arm's hand is hold a gun so he uses it and fights his way to the stealth ship and pilots it out of the Ishimura.

He hails the blockade and David Chang is put through to him.  He gives him the co-ordinates to the Ishimura, "as far as I am concerned you are welcome to it."  Chang demands he stop and await an escort, but Schneider says no one has authority over him.  The stealth ship is "pretty cool" and has a small shock-point engine.  He wishes Chang luck with the Ishimura, "you'll need it" and he blasts away at uncatchable speed.  The end.

Schneider escapes in the stolen ship.

So overall this was pretty good as a piece of world building for the Dead Space universe.  Elements such as the Magpies and the Oracles haven't shown up in the games, but fit in well enough with what we know about the mythology around the Markers, the necromorphs and the government's covert attempts suppress the Unitology religion.  While Anthony Johnston's writing doesn't set things on fire, he does a good job showing how greed can lead to disastrous consequences and makes lead character Schneider likeably cynical and intelligent.  Christopher Shy's art won't be every one's cup of tea but for me I thought it had the real quality of nightmare to it, filling the ship with dank shadows to hide unspeakable horrors which is just like the first game.  If you're not madly into Dead Space then give this a miss.  But as a piece of expanded universe fiction it's of high quality by the standards of the genre and well worth a look if you have a deep interest in the franchise like I do.

Dead Rising: Road To Fortune (#1-4)

"Time to start drinking more, hey, Frank?" - Frank West

Everyone! It's videogame tie-in time again!  No, wait come back, this has zombies in it!  Everyone likes zombies. Yes, even you madam.  Anyway, I'll let you all into a secret.  I can get a bit obssessive when I game.  And earlier this year I got completely obssessed with Dead Rising 2 and it's "alternative universe" re-release, Dead Rising 2:  Off The Record.  And I played them for weeks, which considering all you do is kill zombies using everything from chainsaws to motorbikes to chainsaws welded to motorbikes, you would think the repetition would get a bit much.  Achievements,  I blame chasing those buggers. Ahem.  This comic is set between the first Dead Rising game which saw an zombie outbreak in a shopping mall being covered by a journalist called Frank West, and it's sequel Dead Rising 2, which saw an outbreak of zombies in a casino being dealt with by a motorcyclist called Chuck Greene who had a zombie infected daughter whose symptoms are kept at bay by a medicine called "Zombrex".  This story focuses mainly on aspects of Frank's faltering career post zombies that would be elaborated on in the non-canon Off The Record, as well as detailing how Chuck's daughter got infected and giving more information on the sinister doings of pharmachutical company, "Phenotrans", who are behind the temporary zombie cure "Zombrex".  To kick things off, as I haven't played the first Dead Rising I'm going to be hugely lazy and quote the comic's quick summary of events in it.

"Frank West, a freelance photographer, is looking for the "scoop of a lifetime" and thinks he found it when he heads to the Willamette Parkview Mall in Willamette, Colorado to cover what he believes to be a riot. The truth, however, is far more horrifying when the riot turns out to be a full scale zombie infestation. With his journalistic instincts overriding his fears, Frank enters the mall and is soon fighting for his very life alongside other humans trapped inside the sprawling complex.  As the zombie threat grows so to does Franks knowledge of who is behind the disaster. - it is a deliberate outbreak caused by Carlito Keys as  revenge for the infestation and ulitmate destruction of of his South American town Santa Cabeza by U.S Special Forces following failed U.S. Government experiments in the area."

Now see I could have been even lazier and scanned that paragraph in. But I typed it with my own fingers just for you.  Now let us crack on with the story proper.

Fancy a bite, Frank?

We join Frank in the middle of a nightmare about the events of the end of the first game.  Trapped in a tank, surrounded by zombies, Carlito's sister Isabela who joined up with him to battle the special forces unit that wiped out her town and was there to wipe out the mall to, to cover things up.  Using heavy weaponry, Frank blasts a path out, but at the last minute a zombie rises up behind him and noms on him and Frank wakes up.

He mumbles about the booze supposedly helping him with the bad dreams and goes to the bathroom cabinet where he injects himself with Zombrex, the anti-zombification drug.  Listening to the radio he hears a report from a Rebecca Chang who is being dispatched to a suspected zombie outbreak.  She reports that military containment is tight and she can't get any information from them about what is happening.

Frank gets serious.

Frank calls his agent, Clay and asks if Rebecca can be a guest on his show.  His agent breaks the news that his show has been cancelled.  He suggests Frank do more informercials to keep the cash coming in.  Frank is not pleased.

Frank: "Dammit, I've got a Pulitzer prize and a New York Times bestselling memoir, man!  I've been in wars zones and survived a full on zombie attack, for Christ's sake!"

His agent says that's as maybe, but conspiracy nuts are old news.  Now it's all reality TV.  Frank bellows down the phone at him that "Terror is reality!"  And hangs up.  This gives Clay an idea for a show and he proposes it over the phone to the unseen "TK."

Chuck Greene and family.

The action then cuts to Chuck Greene and his wife, Pam and daughter, Katey driving to Las Vegas.  His wife is a little worried about reports of zombies in the area but Chuck is confident the military has it all contained.  He is a motocross rider and he is coming to Vegas to take part in a big money event.  He is confident he will win.

Chuck: "And after tonight our lives are gonna change like you won't believe..."

We then move to a town called Coyote Springs where a zombie outbreak is indeed occuring.  The army are slowly but surely wiping the hordes out.  The commander calls in an airstrike to hit the town with.

PEW PEW PEW.

Rebecca and her driver/pilot spot the explosion from a way off.  She persists in trying to get some information from the soldiers.  A Captain Kilduf comes out to meet her.  He says he isn't going to say "word one" to her so she better skedaddle.  She says they are sweeping zombies under the rug and is it the government or a private company paying them to do so.  She threatens to fly her chopper over the town to see what's happening, Kilduf says in that case he'd have no choice but to shoot her down so go ahead.

Outmanuvered she walks away and gets a call from Frank West.  He wants to meet up.  He says he's been wanting to get back into the field and the cancellation of his show has given him impetus to do so.  They could compare notes on the whole zombie thing.  Meanwhile the zombie rights organisation C.U.R.E has started picketing the military.  Rebecca says they can meet later, she has an appointment with a contact in Fortune City.

The organisation of eeeeeevil.

We then cut to the "Secret Phenotrans Research Facility located somewhere west of Fortune City".  The boss, Director Mallon has a scientist called Curnow bought to her by a huge security guard called Singh, he was trying to get out and take secret information to Rebecca Chang.  Curnow says his conscience drove him to it:

Curnow: "I just couldn't be a part of it anymore.  Turning all those innocent people into zombies... all the deaths.  It... it's just wrong, don't you see?"

Mallon calls him a hypocrite for being a part of it for so long.  She says the need for Zombrex has helped the company grow.  They will continue to release their bees to infect people.  They make zombies and Zombrex, a vicious cycle they profit from.  Singh then breaks Curnow's neck.  Mallon says nothing must stand in the way of "tonight's operation in Las Vegas".

Back with Frank, he and Rebecca are meeting as Curnow stood Rebecca up.  She asks him what happened with Isabela Keyes who escaped the mall outbreak with him.  Frank says Homeland Security picked her up and he never saw her again.  They both think the Keyes are being made scapegoats for something the government might have a hand in, and as Curnow's contact came from Phenotrans she also suspects they have something to do with the zombie outbreaks as well.  They decide to join forces to investigate further.

Rebecca and Frank hypothesise.

In Still Creek, Nevada, Singh throws a canister of bees out of the disguised van he is in and leaves them to do their infectious work.  We then join Chuck in the Las Vegas Arena getting ready for the race.  Pam gives him a good luck kiss and he says "see you at the finish line.  Love ya!"  The race begins and at the back of the arena appears Singh and several masked Phenotras workers, they all have canisters of bees they smash before disappearing.

The bees get to work and soon the whole arena is full of zombies.  Pam has also been stung. Chuck wins the race, but instead of celebration, when he removes his helmet he is greeted by a scene from hell.  Rebecca gets word of what's happening and calls Frank to come join her and investigate.

Not the bees!

Chuck fights his way to his wife and daughter using a variety of improvised weapons like you do in the games themselves.  Unfortunately he is too late for Pam, who transforms into a zombie before his eyes and she bites Katey hard on the arm.  Chuck has to fight her off and strike the killing blow through her brain, much to his distress.  Katey starts to feel bad and as they leave she asks Chuck:

Katey: "What about mommmy?  Isn't she coming too?"

Chuck: "Mommy?  Oh Pam... No Katey.  Mommy is not coming with us."

Zombie Pam gets a lobotomy.

Chuck gets Katey to his van and smushes his way through the zombies.  Rebecca calls Frank who is stuck in traffic with people fleeing Vegas. Rebecca says she is at the head of the que but the military already has the city blockaded.  Frank decides to drive off-road to get to Rebecca quickly.

In Vegas, Chuck drives to a 24 hour pharmacy.  He smashes the van through the front to squish the zombies lurking outside.  Rebecca and Frank contemplate the blockade and how fast it was set-up, "like they were ready for something to happen."  In the pharmacy a hysterical Chuck finds some Zombrex and injects it in a sleepy Katey.  It temporarily does it's work and stops her turning permanently.  She perks up and he gives her a big hug while apologising to her.

Katey is temporarily saved.

Back with Frank and Rebecca the military are still being intransigent.  They swap abuse with Captain Kilgore.  He knew the special forces guy that Frank fought at the end of the first game, and he threatens to cram Frank's camera down his throat if he continues to bad mouth him.  Rebecca and Frank leave and he shows her a mysterious text he got from an unknown source.  It reads:

Text Message: "I KNOW U R LOOKING 4 ANSWERS RE: PHENOTRANS/ZOMBIES. I CAN HELP RE: SECRET PLANS/EXPERIMENTS.  MORE INFO SOON. A FRIEND."

Frank says he has no idea who it is from.  Rebecca and Jamie set the broadcast van while Frank gets ready to snap some photos.  Rebecca says that if that text message was legit, they just "got their first big break."

Inside Vegas Chuck gets himself and Katey back in his van.  They head for Still Creek, the town that was infected earlier, and where the small prequel game "Case Zero" took place.  Director Mallon listens to Rebecca's broadcast with glee.  The death toll could be as high as a million, and she calls it their "first major harvest".  As she says to Singh, the military aren't asking any questions so "who can stop us?"  And the comic ends.

You can't stop the media!

By the standards to videogame tie-in material this is another pretty good read.  I personally really like the artwork, it has a scruffy, scratchy look I find somehow appealing and really makes the zombies look gruesome.  If you haven't played either of the games, the story would be very much lost on a casual reader.  The job of this comic is to fill in gaps and elaborate on things that were only implied in the games themselves.  It sets up how the "Terror Is Reality" format was come up with, a show run by TK where motorcyclists compete to see who can kill the most zombies unleashed in an arena with their motorbikes.  We also briefly see the zombie rights activists who are a major part of the storyline in both Dead Rising 2 games.  All in all, fun stuff if you have played either or both of the games, but as a stand alone, forget it.

Dead Space (#1-6, Dead Space Extraction)

"I just find it incredible that a bunch of blue-collars like this can get so swept up over a rock" - Bram Neuman

Time for the videogame game tie-in of the month, this time it's the prequel comic to the superb action-horror Xbox 360/PS3 game Dead Space.  In fact this is actually a prequel to the prequel anime-style cartoon "Dead Space: Downfall", both of which roundout the somewhat sparse storyline of the still excellent original game.  That game saw you as a space engineer called Isaac Clarke, whose ship is damaged after it receives a distress call from the "Planet Cracker" mining ship the Ishimura. He is sent aboard to repair the Ishimura and get it moving again while both investigating the disappearence of the Ishimura's crew (and the colony on the planet below) and simultaneously fending off mutated, alien zombie creatures.  It turns out those alien zombie creatures are the crew, resurrected and deformed by an alien artefact called "The Red Marker."  This Marker is also the focus of a particularly zealous religion called Unitology who worship it as a means of bringing them together in peaceful coexistence, while it actually causes madness and death to those close by, and finally brings those dead back to life as homicidal "necromorphs".  The prequel anime and the short comic "Extraction" at the end of this collection deal with the necromorph outbreak on board the Ishimura, the game that told that story - Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii - didn't sell very well, so it was obviously felt that the story would be fresh to the majority of Dead Space fans who didn't own a Wii (ie: most of them). The main part of this comic deals with the outbreak on the planet after the Marker was unearthed so lets deal with it first.

DEAD SPACE - Before the story starts we are given text introductions to the various characters.  Normally I'd come down quite hard on this as characters should be revealed through the story.  But in the case of a prequel, I'll let them off.  We know these characters are boned right from the start, the real purpose of this comic is to fill in the backstory of the Markers and Unitology that cause Isaac so much grief in the three main games.  The characters in the comic are merely plot functions at this point, it even opens with a  page of the main character, Bram, saying everyone's dead or fucked or both before events spool back to what caused all the havoc.  So a bit of extra detail on the characters is unneccesary but I'll accept it as adding more lore to the games's universe.

Bram, the main character tells it like it is.

Also a quick note on the art by Ben Templesmith.  I have to say that I like it a lot, it's nicely styalised and paced and does a lot of the heavy lifting in a story by Anthony Johnson that's somewhat weakly scripted.  Yes it is very brown and grey, but that's being true to the game in question which is without doubt the second brownest game I have ever played (Morrowind on the Xbox being the most brown). I also like the uses of limited palettes and faded colour washes over thin ink lines, it's a good look.  So thumbs up for the art.

Now introducing the characters, we have: Hardboiled ex-cop and head of colony security, Bram. Cortez, security officer and Unitologist. Control Op Marla, who has a casual relationship with Bram. Natalia, engineer. Abbot, head of the Vehicular Transport and Mechanical division of CEC, and Unitologist. Sciarello, Chief Medical Officer. And Carthusia, Project Manager and Head of the colony, also a Unitologist.

The story begins with Bram recording a message to try and warn people away from the colony. Saying that is the listener is planetside they are already dead and should just order the place nuked for the sake of humanity.  Then we travel back to five weeks ago.  We join Bram asking Marla out on a date which she refuses due to her workload.  Suddenly on her vidscreen appears a strange, twisted black artefact with red markings on it.  The people excavating outside have found a Marker, the mythical centre of the Unitologist's beliefs.

The Red Marker, source of the shenanigans

When questioned as to why it is red rather than black, Cortez who is a believer, says that there might be more than one type of Marker and more might be known if the original hadn't been stolen from a man called Altman who founded the religion around the Black Marker two hundred years ago. Bram, who lost his wife to the Unitology cult can't believe Cortez, his partner, is a "Marker-head".  There is an argument in the mess hall between Unitologists and non-believers that he breaks up.

Time moves on. CMO Sciarello is starting to get cases of extreme insomnia, twenty in the past three days. Ever since the Marker was found.  In the colony main square Abbot is preaching the word of Unitology to a crowd. Saying the discovery of the Marker proves the church was right.  When Bram responds mockingly, Cortez says "Damn it, this is my faith!".  Abbot then mocks Bram in return for dissension in the ranks.  Bram responds:

Bram: "There is no godamn Marker! Sure that thing out there is some weird shit.  Maybe it isn't even human!  But in case you haven't already noticed, we already conquered heaven, and guess what?  God wasn't home!"

Bram throws up his hands and leaves when Abbot says his God is in evidence.  Out at the Marker site the workers say Carthusia has ordered a tramline be built between the Marker and the colony.  Later Bram and Cortez are called to an emergency at the surgery.  Sciarello is being held hostage by one of the insomniacs, who has cut his nurse in half.  Bram and COrtez manage to subdue him.

Doctor Sciarello, taken hostage.

Carthusia is told by a mysterious man over sub-space communications that his top priority is to protect the Marker at all costs.  Carthusia who is "vested" in the Unitology religion agrees.  Later Abbot and a team take an unsceduled trip to the Marker.  Standing in awe, they all suddenly have visions of dead people talking to them.

We jump forward to Sciarello holding a wake for the dead nurse, Katie. As he tells the assembled how Katie saved his life by calling security, he sees a vision of her in the crowd and stumbles away from the podium.  Bram goes to pick up Cortez, but she decides to take a sick day as she is suffering insomnia.

In his office Carthusia dresses Abbot down for going to the Marker.  Then he is visited by Sciarello who tells him the incidents of depression and insomnia are getting out of control. He wants them investigated and the Marker as well.  Carthusia says it's just stir crazy colonists and as Sciarello leaves, enquires if the have a morgue.  When he is told they do, he says "interesting".

The sinister Carthusia.

By the Marker, Natalia and others have been told to stand guard. Others show up to worship with Abbot nearby.  Bram and Sciarello drive out to the Marker where Bram finds Cortez with the pilgrims.  He blows up at her saying she is risking her job, she says "some things in life are just too important".  Bram tries to drag her away for a psyche eval, but the others stop him.  Bram and Sciarello leave.  Sciarello, who was scanning the Marker says he has found nothing out of the ordinary about it, much to Bram's disbelief.

Carthusia gets a message letting him know about the doctor's trip.  The person reporting this says there have been outbursts of aggression amongst the guards and pilgrims alike.  Bram goes to see Marla, who is examining video footage of the Marker, she thinks the symbols are a code or language.  When Bram says that the Unitology church has been trying to decode the Black Marker for centuries, Marla says maybe a "fresh perspective" might help.

Bram and Marla.

Carthusia sends another security team to take over guarding the Marker because he believes the guards there leaked the video footage of it.  But when they try to take over Natalia shoots one of them.  The others manage to talk her down, and she gets a punch in the face for her troubles.  Bram appeals to Carthusia to leave the Marker alone now people are dying. Carthusia brushes them off saying in four days time it will be transported up to the Ishimura.

Bram and Sciarello leave.  Bram is bewildered by the effect the Marker is having.  Sciarello says he is a sceptic and an atheist but if he was a spiritual man, he'd be praying about now.  Then he goes to see Natalia who has been confined to a cell.  She says she dreams of killing all the time and attacks Sciarello and tries to choke him to death but security rush in and knock her out.

At the main square all the Unitologists have gathered to hear Abbot preach.  He says it's time to ascend and become one with their God.  Bram tries to pull Cortez away but she says "you can't escape your fate" and they all take out a gun each and kill themselves, all fifty of them.  Carthusia tells this to his church superior who appears to be the Captain of the Ishimura.  He says he wants the corpses kept well on ice.

Cortez goes out with a bang.

Bram is now down in one of the colony vents, a worker shows him a strange sort of fleshy growth coming out of one of the grills.  When Bram pokes it, it reacts as if alive.  Elsewhere the Marker has been bought into the main colony base.  Carthusia goes to inspect it:

Carthusia: "Is it true?  Do you hold the key to life... and the journey beyond death?"

Sciarello is called to an apartment.  The husband of the woman who called him has been scrawling words and symbols all over the walls.  He then attacks the doctor but his wife knocks him out with a hypodermic Sciarello dropped.  Bram visits Marla who is still trying to decode the Marker.  Bram says the Marker is "evil".  Marla says it could be evidence of alien life.  She accuses him of getting emotional:

Bram: "People are dying Marla.  I can't think of a reason not to get emotional."

Bram pleads with Carthusia to stop the planetcrack, but Carthusia says he is no longer in charge of the colony, the captain of the Ishimura is.  The Marker is taken up to the Ishimura but it's baleful effects still can be felt on the colony.  Sciarello and Bram go and visit Natalia who has started scrawling words and symbols all over her cell walls.  Bram gets a call from the supervisor who alerted him to the flesh fungus in the vents, it's spread out all over the colony underbelly.

A futile plea from Bram to Carthusia

The Captain of the Ishimura talks with Carthusia who is to send the bodies of the suicides up to the ship.  But he refuses to allow Carthusia to come up as well and intends to place a no fly zone over the colony.  So Carthusia angrily says he'll have to come down and get the bodies himself.  Bram takes Marla to see Natalia, ostensibly to try and warn Marla from being so obssessed with the Marker.  Then he shows Carthusia footage of the flesh fungus and says they need to abort the planetcrack and evacuate.  But Carthusia ignores him.

Marla thanks Bram for taking her to visit Natalia, she's close to cracking the Marker code and it has something to do with DNA.  Bram departs in annoyance.  The planetcrack takes place and the Ishimura blasts a huge hole in the planets crust where it can be mined from.  But something goes wrong.  All the colony's power goes off and the communications go down.

The planetcrack in progress.

Down in the vents the supervisor is attacked by something unseen that turns him into red mist.  Bram manages to find Marla, she says she found something out about the Marker, but Bram hurries her along saying they need to get to HQ.  Unfortunately once there they find everyone dead and the vent flesh in evidence.  Marla tells Bram she discovered the Marker was instructions for DNA:

Marla: "Recombinant. A DNA that mutates genes at a cellular level, like a cancer or virus.  But soon it spreads through through a specific target vector...Necrotic flesh Bram!  It infects dead bodies!"

And after this revelation, Carthusian is horribly murdered by a now revealed necromorph, while praying to Altman.

A Necromorph takes out Carthusia

Back with Bram and Marla, something bursts out of one of the bodies and goes to infect the others.  Bram shoots it while they receieve a crackly distress call from another part of the base.  We get a glimpse of what's going one there, they are all being massacred by necromorphs.  Bram tries shooting the necromorph that has formed but it's immune to bullets (in the game necromorphs are like the Black Knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, you have to use cutting tools to de-limb them until they can't hop after you.  Even the standard zombie fighting tactic of shooting the head off won't work). They squish it behind a desk, but it breaks in half and keeps coming after them.  Bram smashes its head in with a fireaxe.  They decide to make for the shuttles despite there being a no-fly zone.

Sciarello heads for the med-lab, he wants to be there for the injured.  But when he gets there he finds it empty, bar the necromorphs on the ceiling and he dies courtesy of a spike to the forehead.  There is a crowd of people trying to get on the shuttles.  Meanwhile Natalia has escaped her cell and his making her own way elsewhere.

Bram and Marla pick up a group of people heading for the shuttles.  Their way is blocked by a roomful of dead and a necromorph maker.  Bram says if they are quick they can make their way through, but end up confronted by a necromorph.  Theyy flee with Bram smashing necromorphs out of the way with his axe.  They make it through the door and Bram fires into some canisters behind him that blow the persuing necromorphs up.

Bram gets handy with a fire axe

Bram and Marla are now in the shuttle bay, one of the shuttles has manages to take off but it is overloaded.  It ends up falling out of the sky and crashing into the shuttles on the ground destroying them all.  Marla says that they might be able to contact the Ishimura for help via the comms tower.  Bram is dubious that it'll work but Marla says she doesn't want to "sit on my ass and wait to die."  Meanwhile Natalia has driven out to the planetcracked hole in the ground and dives in saying "make me whole."

Bram and Marla get to the comms tower and find the whole place covered in the flesh fungus.  Some of the stuff has human faces embedded in it, one of which Bram recognises as Cortez.  Then more necromorphs appear and chase them.  Bram gets to a safe room, but Marla is grabbed and killed. 

And so it ends, all of them dead or tranformed.

Shut in the room, Bram is left alone and despairing.  We then join him where we started the book, finishing up his tale of what happened as a warning to others.  Then he walks out of the room to his certain death and the story ends with a male and female face stuck in the wall-flesh.  Marla and Bram? It may very well be.  And so it ends.

DEAD SPACE: EXTRACTION:  This is just a short comic recapping what happened on the Ishimura for those who either didn't play the Wii Dead Space game nor watched Dead Space: Downfall. It stars the Nicole, the girlfriend of the game's protagonist Isaac Clarke who makes a cameo at the start saying goodbye to her as she takes up her post of Chief Medical Officer aboard the Ishimura as it heads to the benighted colony to "planetcrack" it. 

Nicole, Isaac's erstwhile girlfriend.

Unfortunately when they get there taking the Marker aboard has the same effects as it did on the colony, people fall ill, there is an outbreak of suicides and murder and finally necromorphs are created.  She valiantly tries to combat them by thinking she has cracked the Marker code and can reverse engineer a viral cure.  But she may have hallucinated it as she quickly gives up and records her final message to Isaac which we see in full at the end of the first Dead Space game when (SPOILERS) she turns out to have died along with everyone else aboard.

So overall as videogame tie-in's go, this is one of the better ones.  The Dead Space universe is yet another transmedia one, and I think that this hopefully might save the videogame side of the franchise after Dead Space 3 flopped critically and commercially (Dead Space 2 is one of the greatest games ever made, Dead Space 3 took me four attempts to finish and I swear I spent more time opening doors than fighting monsters in it) in spectacular fashion.  This comic builds tension nicely, so even though you know what's coming the comic still finds time to explain the reasons why and fill in the history of the Unitology cult and how the Markers are linked to the necromorphs.  The art makes good use of colour to convey mood, and the more cartoony nature of the figure drawing isn't something I would have expected but I also welcome it and it's got me curious about seeking out more stuff by Ben Templesmith. I can't imagine anyone not already versed in the Dead Space games would pick this up, but it does actually make a pretty good, self contained sci-fi "zombie" horror story.  But if you are into the Dead Space games, have watched the cartoon, read the books and worn the T-shirt, this is well worth a look.