Farscape: Scorpius #0-4

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Alan Mack
Art by Mike Ruiz and Gordon Purcell

Having been won over to the regular Farscape comic, I thought I'd check out the Scorpius spin-off trade when it comes out soon.  Then, at Fan Expo, I realized I could get the original issues for less than the trade will cost, and I dove right in.

The series is tied very closely to the parent book, although the events taking place in this have not yet had any bearing on that book.  Throughout the Farscape universe, an alien race called the Grennij have been attacking worlds on behalf of another, older race called the Kkore.  This series opens on a remote ice planet, where Scorpius, exiled by Rygel, has crashed.  When a Grennij fleet lands to repair a ship, Scorpius gets up to his usual tricks, ingratiating himself to the Grennij commander, and then insinuating his way into command of the fleet.  A meeting with the Kkore leads to a new purpose for Scorpius, who perceives his opportunity to finally get the power and revenge he's always wanted.

The writing on this book is tight.  Scorpius always had a certain pattern of speech on the TV show, and that has been continued here.  It's easy to hear his voice when reading this.  The art on the first four issues (#0 is really the first issue, and not an introductory story, like #0s used to be) is by Mike Ruiz, and it's great.  It has a sinister quality to it, and I especially like the way, in flashbacks, all characters other than Scorpy are rendered in a scratchy, hazy way.  Gordon Purcell, the artist for issue 4 is decent, but I much preferred Ruiz's work.

I'm impressed with what I've found here, and am now concerned that I'll have to add this title to my pull list as well, which I did not want to have happen.