Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising

Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising by Zachary Sherman and Bagus Hutomo collects issues 1 through 5 of Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising.

Shrapnel is a science fiction comic in a dystopian future created by Mark Long and Nick Sagan. The story is in a future where humans have colonized the Solar System. The Solar Alliance, a powerful government is trying to conquest the different colonies (Mars, Jupiter, Venus) and in this story we get to see what happens when the Alliance goes against Venus.

The story is entertaining. I like it but I don't love it. The story doesn't have a strong ending which is probably because they are planning three stories.

The art, while very beautiful, doesn't do a very good job of telling us what's going on. The main problem with the art, might not be the artists fault as the people fight in some high technology suits and it is very hard to tell which character is which due to this. The painted art many times gets in the way of the story with images that look blurry. I usually love painted art, but in a book where there's a lot of war scenes, I would have preferred sleeker, cleaner art.

The thing I liked about this book was the price. It says 5 issues, but two of them are double sized, so you get 7 issues for the price of 5 which is a pretty good deal.