Dark Horse Comics The Orville Sets Another High Bar For Sci-fi

Photo courtesy of SyFy.com

While season 3 is winding up, Dark Horse Comics is giving us something to tie the fans over (or maybe longer?) until our beloved Orville is back in action. And I got to admit, it’s pretty damn spiffy.

New Beginnings Part 1&2 aim to build a bridge between the first and second series, tying up a few loose ends that the show wasn’t able to work in during it’s allotted time, in a very creative way.

Part 1 dives into the complexities of life on the ship including alien family needs pared against Union regulations, the emotional difficulties in working with exes, dating, and so much more.

While Ed and Gordon are heading out to attend a meeting at a nearby outpost, Kelly finds herself in the middle of an educational debate between Bortus and Cassius, the resident teacher, with Bortus demanding Topa be enrolled into school and Cassius refusing to allow him in class due to Topa simply not being old enough, according to the Union Board Of Education rules. Moclan children mature extremely fast making it difficult to gauge their development when compared to other children of similar age.

That doesn’t exactly go over well. At all.

While all of that is going on, as Ed and Gordon are en route to the outpost, they come across an old beacon from a long dead battle ship that is still sending out a distress call. Unable to hail the Orville due to magnetic interference radiating out of a nearby star, they pursue the distress call only to find themselves in need of a good rescue. They crash land on a nearby planet where they meet friendly but primitive locals who somehow have access to high level technology that they shouldn’t, nor even know how to use. That’s where part 2 takes over, with Ed and Gordon trying to put the pieces together in time to prevent the same mechanism that shot their shuttle down from trying to fire on The Orville when it arrives to rescue the team and returns fire. No pressure though.

Image courtesy of SyFy.com

Back on board the ship, things between Cassius, Bortus, and Kelly have been smoothed over, and there even seems to be a mutual attraction developing between Kelly and Cassius. Just when things seem to go back to the mundane, the Orville comes across the same beacon that diverted Ed and Gordon from their meeting at the outpost. When it’s learned Ed and Gordon never arrived to said meeting, the Orville picks up the shuttle’s trail and heads straight for the planet with less than stellar results. The good news is no one died. The bad news is…well you can read that for yourself.

Back on board Ed and Kelly debrief and like goes back to normal, but it’s a great set up for the next in the series.

The story is well written, the art work is fantastic, and the overall flow is really tight. Fans of the show will pick up on some of the more subtle references but overall the comic can be enjoyed by anyone who is a fan of the genre.

All images are courtesy of SyFy.com