Writer: Jan Strnad
Penciller: Davide Fabbri
Inker: Andrew Pepoy
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Peary McNamee
Cover Artist: John Bolton
Just when I thought all we would read about is the early adventures of Rasczak, Strnad decided to bring us in a totally different direction. My girlfriend and I read through these issues together and in the first couple we started to get worried they were completely cutting the characters out of the movie. Unfortunately most of that happened, but in some ways it didn’t. Strnad’s story is pretty good, but it doesn’t really feel very original overall.
“Dominant Species” is the story of three kids that live on a planet called “New Kansas”. It’s a small settlement and doesn’t have much to do with the war with the Arachnids, until they get attacked that is. Our main hero, Trask, is really against the Federation, because of all the things his father believes about them. His two friends agree with him, for the most part, until they get attacked. After that the Federation is quick to move in and try to recruit, Trask is dead set against this, but his friends are a little more amiable to the idea. Just like the movie the group of friends consists of two guys and one girl. While Trask does not join the war effort, his friends do, and here’s a shock, the girl, Kit, becomes a pilot and his other friend, Payson, has a psychic ability. Kit and Trask were also kind of a thing before she joined up… where did I see that before? Albeit their stories are a bit different, I couldn’t help seeing the parallels. Now “Dominant Species” isn’t a total rip off and there are some redeeming qualities. Trask’s whole story, while vastly different from Rico’s, was one of the things that pulled the comic together for me. If he just followed the Rico character, which he was sort of modeled after, I think I would’ve been much more bored with this. However, not following that path gave us a whole different personality. Another addition that was really interesting was the introduction of the Neo-Dogs. It’s humans that are psychically linked with a dog for scouting missions. The Dog has some technological implants that give it rudimentary speech. Unfortunately the dogs basically sound like Scooby Doo, so that got kind of annoying after a while.
Trask seems to be dead set against the Federation, that is until something happens to one of his friends, and it’s up to him to save him. It’s a little too far fetched of a concept, but I have to admit, for a plot twist it was pretty excellent. Especially since this gave them a chance to introduce the new Power Armor concept. I won’t go into detail; you’ll have to read the series. I can’t help but think that Fabbri’s art has markedly improved in this series over “Insect Touch”. All the figures seem very well drawn and their lips don’t look too big for their heads! I’d say he’s on his way to becoming a solid comic book artist, because “Dominant Species” looks great from an artistic standpoint.
Overall it was a decent read. While a little cliché at times, I did enjoy seeing bugs get blasted and that’s my main motivation for reading a Starship Troopers comic! If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll probably enjoy this just as much, but don’t expect anything ground breaking.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5