Letter 44 Volume 1: Escape Velocity

by Charles Soule

Alberto Alburquerque (Artist)

• On Inauguration Day, newly elected President Stephen Blades hoped to tackle
  the most critical issues facing the nation: war, the economy, and a failing
  health care system. But in a letter penned by the outgoing President, Blades
  learns the truth that redefines "critical": seven years ago, NASA discovered an
  alien presence in the asteroid belt, and kept it a secret from the world. A
  stealth mission crewed by nine astronauts was sent to make contact, and they're
  getting close — assuming they survive the long journey to reach their
  destination. Today, President-elect Blades has become the most powerful man on
  the planet. This planet!

• ISBN10: 1620101335
• ISBN13: 9781620101339
• Publish Date: 12 August 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Oni Press,US
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 144
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

Summary: On his first day of his new job, president Stephen Blades finds a letter of his predecessor. In this letter, he learns about an alien construction hidden in space, and about the space mission on its way to discover what the construction is, and why it's there.

What I liked:
- I've been binging on science-fiction reads lately, and I liked this take on the "intelligent beings in space" theme. More mystery, and less big-headed green guys
- President Blades is put in a difficult position - will he tell the public about the proof of intelligent being in the universe, or won't he?
- I liked how the spaceship team was made up of a combination of military and scientific personnel, and how they interacted with each other

What I didn't like:
- Jezus Christ, there is way too much text in this comic. Isn't the idea that both the pictures and the words tell the story. If you need so much text, you know you're not doing it right
- The political intrigue didn't live up to my expectations. All the different factions could have been awesome, but there just wasn't enough conflict. It was all fairly standard and predictable
- The art. It was just a bit meh
- By the end of the book, we've barely progressed in the story. Too much time is spent on unimportant subplots, and the main attraction doesn't go beyond basic development

Verdict: A mediocre politics and space mash-up. Mainly consists of heavy-handed dialogue and useless action scenes, without any real meat to the story.