Farscape #1-4

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido
Art by Will Sliney

I've been trying to pick up more of the Farscape series because I loved the show, and have enjoyed most of the Boom comics that have continued the stories of Moya and her crew ever since.

These four issues encompass the 'Tangled Roots' story arc that launched the on-going series.  In it, Crichton and Aeryn split up as they go on two separate missions, both related to their son Deke.  Crichton and Chiana try to track down Roiin, the bounty hunter that has been chasing them since the beginning of the Boom series.  To figure out who hired him, Chiana poses as a young woman that is interested in him, and the two of them spend some quality time together.  Unexpectedly, Chiana develops some serious feelings for him.

At the same time, Aeryn tracks down her former fellow Peacekeepers to see if she had ever been exposed to any nerve agents or gasses that may be accountable for the presence of a strange gland on Deke's spine.  She ends up on Prybella, a pacifist Sebecean colony, where she runs into Velorek, her former lover, and the parents of Captain Crais.  Things get a little weird here, as the story involves pure-blood Sebeceans (it is odd to me that a people so concerned with contamination would not have more pure-bloods), religion, and a deeply ingrained aversion to open conflict.

This is a good story, although some of the story elements don't feel completely true to the spirit of the original show.  It seems to lack the madcap spontaneity that I grew to expect from Farscape.  I hope that is something that develops as the book progresses.

That said, I enjoyed reading this story, and feel that Chiana's easily-conflicted nature is portrayed nicely.  I do look forward to finding out who hired Roiin eventually.