Today I’m reviewing the newest Netflix-owned comic-book from the mind of writer Mark Millar. This is a sci-fi series, and it opens in deep space, on an intergalactic starship cruiser (named after Lionel Richie), where we meet the first of our “heroes”, Cody Blue. Cody looks human, a Black woman, although it’s not made clear whether she is one or is just from some humanoid-looking alien species. We quickly learn that she’s an experienced criminal, she’s been leading a gang of hired thieves in a series of robberies of which this cruiser is the latest one. With the help of her pet sentient lizard named Cosmo, she manages to render all inhabitants of the cruiser unconscious, so that her gang can board the cruiser and safely rob everyone. However, after this robbery, her gang betrays her and leaves her for dead.

Then we cut to an alien planet, where we meet our second “hero” another human-looking woman (this one White, but with green hair) named Thena Cole. She’s a well-known criminal with a long list of felonies to her name, and a blue-skinned alien named Viggo Lust is turning her in to the local authorities in exchange for the very large bounty that’s on her head. But this turns out to be a ruse, because a couple of ours later Viggo helps Thena break free and escape. It turns out that this is a regular trick that they do, where Viggo pretends to capture her just to get the reward money and then they escape together. Thena and Viggo are also lovers. In a montage we see the two of them play this trick three more times on different planets. They plan to do it one more time before retiring, but on the fourth time Viggo betrays Thena and doesn’t help her escape, so now she finds herself headed to jail for real.

The jail turns out to be a giant dead formerly sentient lobster floating in space and now used as a prison for the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals. When Thena arrives, she soon meets Cody, who has somehow survived the murder attempt against her.

It’s a solid first issue. Overall I’d have to say that the story isn’t overly original, it’s just that by setting it in space with a bunch of aliens Millar gives it a new twist. The dialog is typical Mark Millar, everyone speaks like a bad-ass action movie hero. The artist is Matteo Scalera, whose work I’m not familiar with, but I really enjoy his style here. This seems like it could be a fun book, worth reading.

CHACEBOOK RATING: FOUR STARS

AVAILABLE ON COMIXOLOGY