REDSHIFT #3 – Review

In REDSHIFT #3, available from Scout Comics on October 6th, 2021, Cybil and L.T. find evidence of one of the prior missions that never returned, and it almost gets one of them killed. Meanwhile, the conspiracy to hoard resources on Mars takes a deadly turn.

The Details

• Written By: H.S. Tak
• Art By: Brent McKee
• Colors By: Sebastian Cheng
• Letters By: Joel Rodriguez
• Cover Art By: Amancay Nahuelpan
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: Ocober 6, 2021

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Was It Good?

The tone of the series takes a significant turn in this issue, and I like where the story is going.

Up to this point, a lot of the conflict and drama was fairly focused on the increasingly oppressive life on Mars and L.T.’s emotional hangup about following in his mother’s footsteps to lead the next scout mission. Now that the setup is out of the way and the mission has launched, this story feels more like a proper space mystery as we see the path of previous missions and what happened to them as the journey progresses.

I love mysteries. I especially love space mysteries, and they need not be filled with aliens or something otherworldly. Here we get to see the story reveal what happened with just enough ambiguity to suggest the previous mission failures were more than just due to human error or system failure. As of now, the story is still firmly grounded in human reality but it’s the speculation about what could be that makes the mystery guessing game so fun.

The plot revolves are around two threads — the first significant discovery by Cybil and L.T. as they make their way out of the solar system, and the escalating unrest on Mars. The space journey is given the most room to breathe, but each thread has enough meat to feel like their respective contributions were significant enough to move the plot forward. Of the two, the space journey has the most interesting bits to keep the reader engaged and build curiosity for whatever comes next.

Cheng’s art (and the whole team’s for that matter) is outstanding in this issue. Rather than standing around and dealing with interpersonal conflicts as we’ve done for the first two issues, Cheng gets to flex some creative muscle by showing us spaceships, spacewalks, and an unexpected emergency that you’ve never seen before. It all plays out beautifully, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next on the journey.

What’s It About?

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

First, recap the mission to save humanity by reading our REDSHIFT #2 review.

L.T. and Cybil are acclimating to life in a spaceship while trying to stay out of each other’s way. Since L.T. is technically a stowaway, his presence hasn’t been fully accepted by Cybil. Ignoring her initial misgivings about his presence, Cybil asks for assistance with a new discovery — an artificial object has been detected in orbit around Neptune.

Despite L.T.’s protests over taking unnecessary risks, Cybil goes out on a spacewalk to investigate what they learn is the derelict shuttle from a previous mission, the Perseus. Cybil is determined to get the ship’s logs, and when she spacewalks to the ship, she finds a complete lack of power or life. Unfortunately, Cybil finds herself in a very dangerous position when she powers up the ship and finds the thrusters come on automatically to rocket the ship out of control to the planet’s surface.

We conclude the issue with Cybil making a macabre discovery, the logs revealing an oddly mundane reason for the mission’s failure, and an interrogation on Mars that shows how far the government is willing to go to protect its secrets.

Final Thoughts

REDSHIFT #3 kicks the series up several notches by switching out the social-political intrigue of life on Mars to a full-blown space mystery. The acting and space action feels authentic, cinematic, and extremely well done. And the intrigue around the Martian conspiracy and the mystery of the fate of prior missions heaps on tons of curiosity to wonder what happens next.

Score: 9/10