BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR: WARRIORS OF ZANDAR #1 – Review

In BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR: WARRIORS OF ZANDAR #1, available from American Mythology on August 25th, 2021, Victory Harben finds herself stranded on the distant planet Zandar where she encounters brutal alien tribes and deadly jungle creatures.

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The Details

• Written By: Mike Wolfer
• Art By: Alessandro Ranaldi
• Colors By: Arthur Hesli
• Letters By: Natalie Jane
• Cover Art By: Alessandro Ranaldi,Beezzz Studio
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: August 25, 2021

Was It Good?

Perfect, perfect, perfect!

This is a classic space adventure in purest form using characters straight from the Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) canon, and it works on every level. The tone of the narrator perfectly captures the early 20th Century manner of writing so prevalent in ERB source material, the look of the characters (both human and alien) has a nostalgic feel without looking dated or silly, and the premise is fantastical enough to hold the readers’ attention without stepping too far away from believability.

That’s a mouthful of praise, so let’s get specific.

Wolfer wisely takes the existing ERB works based on the far-off planet Poloda and begins a whole new, canonical adventure set on Poloda’s sister planet of Zandar. The result is a story that feels familiar but stands on its own as a wholly original story.

The main hero of issue #1, Victory Harben, is written with as much spunk and grit as her mother, Gretchen von Harben. It makes perfect sense to have this tile come out in the same month as the next arc in the Pellucidar series where Victory’s mother is the star of the show. In a unique way, you can see where Victory gets her spunk from.

The one minor down point of this story is the utter lack of setup. Readers are dropped into the action with little explanation as to who Victory is or how she got on this planet. Thankfully, the writing is strong enough to not need much explanation as to what’s going on, but it is a little jarring to not have at least an introduction.

As for the art, it’s very good. Ranaldi has a great eye for quick movements and kinetic action. Randaldi’s energy is enhanced by an interesting eye for alien creature designs that suit the world of Zandar in an organic way. On top of Ranaldi’s creative designs, every panel pops with Hesli’s superb colorwork.

Overall, this is a great first issue of classic space adventure.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

We begin with a strange tribe of orange aliens who appear to have killed another group of blue aliens around a series of small water pools. Victory Harben chances across the massacre’s aftermath as the orange aliens appear to be gathering up what look like blue tadpoles from the pools.

Victory assesses the situation and assumes the worst. When the orange aliens notice her presence, she frightens them off using her ray gun. A short while later, a female blue alien returns from an errand and finds the bodies of her tribesman littered around the pools with Victory standing nearby. The blue alien assumes the worst (incorrectly) and attacks Victory.

Just barely, Victory manages to convince the blue alien, Tii-Laa, that she means no harm. When Victory explains what happened, Tii-Laa immediately dashes off to pursue the orange aliens as the blue tadpoles they gathered up are the children of Tii-Laa’s people.

The last act concludes the story with a perilous race through the Zandarian jungle, Ti-Laa’s surprising introduction to Victory’s furry friend, and an ominous revelation about what the orange aliens do with captives.

Final Thoughts

BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR: WARRIORS OF ZANDAR #1 is a pristine example of taking classic science fiction stories and building on them to bring readers something both fresh and familiar. The action sequences are great. The alien designs are creative. And the writing drops readers right in the middle of the adventure with a minimal amount of confusion or exposition.

Score: 8.5/10