Indie Comic Review: Marassa #1

Previously...

You may not know this, but there are a lot of Black sci-fi stories out there, and by sci-fi I mean science fiction stories staring characters of African descent, featuring African design aesthetics and sometimes mythology. One such story is Evoluzione’s Marassa, a high adventure space opera about space-pirate twin siblings. A story of family and legacy that begs the question; is our past ever really finished with us even after we’ve left it behind? Strap in for Greg Anderson Elysée’s “Marassa”.

Our story begins with a Koulev, a notorious bounty hunter, engaging in battle with a group of rival bounty hunters on what appears to be a moon. Koulev has made the all too common mistake of bringing a spear to a spaceship fight and after dodging mini gunfire, receives a missile to the chest and is blown out of the moon’s orbit. Cut to a scene where one of our protagonists, Sa, crashes an outdoor auction on a planet that looks like Tatooine. Here he “ahem” acquires a map known as ‘Kavo’s Bones’ that will lead to a treasure his parents hid years ago on some far-flung planet. Sa and his son Petite travel to another planet where Sa’s older twin sister Mara, lives with her husband, Tobias the prince of said planet. We meet Mara chatting with Queen Mother Wendella, the ruler of one of the. From this point, the story proceeds a little like cake whose primary ingredients were Oceans 11 and Star Wars, with a surprising ending.

Greg Anderson Elysée is one of the best indie comic writers out today and a personal favorite of mine. I was curious to see how he handled sci-fi since I mainly know him for Horror and Dark Fantasy comics, and my curiosity was rewarded. Marassa reminds me of a bit of Saga, being more of a Sci-fantasy family drama than a hard science fiction piece. This is not to say that it isn’t good, on the contrary, the focus on character development and how a family legacy can affect our lives beyond time and the from light-years away. Sa is a suave, swashbuckling rouge, who looks like he’d feel confident jumping into a pirana tank with a meat vest on and come out unscathed he’s definitely the more reckless of the siblings. Mara must have been the planner of the two and the more responsible as she realizes when it’s time to put down the eye patch and stop the space pirating. Queen Wendela is the third most realized character in the story, ever the playful monarch, teasing Mara and openly flirting with Sa, much to the chagrin of her son. The theme of family dynamics is at the forefront of the storytelling, however, I wish that there were more sci-fi elements, ships, lasers, and hyperdrive, but I’ll leave that for the next issue.

Antonello Cosentino has fused African diasporic aesthetics and futuristic design, which adds an Astro-organic look that sets the entire science fiction tone of the story. This gives a lot of the locale’s a ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ look, where African and middle eastern architecture are at the forefront of the design schemes. When addressing the Astro-organic look of everything Sa’s ship is a perfect place to start, there are an inexplicable set of vines growing out of the bottom that doesn’t at all look out of place in the overall design, but adds an interesting quirk to it and makes me wonder what its use is. Sa’s son is yet another example of this. The boy is seemingly made out of softwood or some other material, making him look like a cross between a young T’Challa and Pinocchio in a bipedal mecha suit. Francesco Montalbano does a great job of using earth tones to add to the diasporic aesthetic of the story, drawing on browns and oranges that maintain a vibrancy without being too loud and a subdued tone without being too muted. These coloring choices also help with the Astro-organic look that permeates the book. Lastly, I love how Justin Birch specializes in the lettering and word balloons of each group of characters, totally organic beings had normal word balloons while the Astro-organic Petite had an earth color word ballon, almost denoting a peace or harmony. The cyborg bounty hunters had ash black balloons that seemed malevolent or diseased. It added a nice level of difference to the various inhabitants of this corner of space.

The Real

I liked this project overall, but I really wanted a little bit more sci-fi from the story, however since issue 2 is dropping soon, I won’t complain too much just yet. I look forward to more of Elysée’s space opera epic and from Evoluzione in general

PURCHASE

As always if you enjoyed the review please take the time to support! You can purchase digitally here or if you'd like to purchase a physical copy email the creator at gregdae22@gmail.com

This review was written by Ra'Chaun Rogers on behalf of Concept Moon Studios. If you enjoy his comic reviews click here for more!