Comics Review: "Dead Space: Liberation"

- by Ninja Ross, 20 February 2012

"Dead Space: Liberation" by Ian Edginton and Christopher Shy, published by Titan Books, came out the same day as "Dead Space 3" and it serves as a bridge between the "Dead Space 2" and 3 video games. But is it a worthy addition to the universe of Dead Space or is it a horrible mess?

The book follows new character John Carver after the site his wife works at is attacked by Unitologists. There are explosions and some more explosions, followed by necromorph attacks.

Carver comes across Dead Space 2’s Ellie Langford, who informs him that she and Robert Norton have been working with his wife to stop Unitologists and investigate The Markers.

Now, from my summary alone, you’re probably confused. Unitologists? Necromorphs? Markers? These things are part of the Dead Space Universe and unless you’ve played the games, you’re not likely to understand the details of this book.

But Edgington does a good job of writing it so you don’t NEED to know about these things. You’ll easily figure out that Unitologists are a crazy cult, The Markers create Necromorphs and Necromorphs are evil monsters. That last one gets pretty obvious with the blood and stuff.

So, when you take out the words related to the games, the plot becomes a simple Sci-Fi Action graphic novel and it’s done well. Things explode, people get killed, people get saved and people swear. And monsters!

For those of us who play the games, the book becomes a lot more interesting. We get a closer look at how The Markers work (or, rather, how people like the Unitologists react to them) and we get to see how Ellie is doing. She doesn’t wear an eye patch, though...

So, for people like me, it’s a fairly important addition to the Dead Space Universe. It reads well, despite the confusing way the dialogue is set out.

But how does it look? Well, when I unrapped it my first reaction was “ooooh” and for good reason; it looks sexy.

Oooh yeah. But yeah, that's a bit of a weird way to place dialogue.

Unfortunately, it looks best at first glance. When you’re reading it you easily notice how often photos are used and it’s also a bit difficult to tell who’s who at times. Is it Carver or Norton? I dunno, they both look pissed off.

But Shy’s work does fir the horror genre. It’s nice and dark and the images he creates look like something from a nightmare. I actually prefer the Necromorphs in this book than in the games. While he’s no Ben Templesmith (who provided the art for previous entries) he is pretty good. It looks gorgeous (if weak, in several places) and it serves its purpose admirably.

So you don’t need to be a fan of the superb horror sci-fi video game franchise like I obviously am, but it helps. And fans of the franchise should already be picking this up!

You can buy "Dead Space: Liberation" on the Titan Books website! Do you think it’s a worthy addition to the series? Or do you disagree entirely? Sound off in the comments!

Tagged: comics, Reviews.

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