REDSHIFT #5 – Review

REDSHIFT #5, from Scout Comics on February 23rd, 2022, does what’s never been done before – successfully brings a voyager probe back to Mars with good news.

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: February 23, 2022

Wait! Don’t Forget To Sign Up For The Comical Opinions Newsletter.

Was It Good?

REDSHIFT #5 is another comic released this week that delivers an amazingly good issue by presenting a difficult moral dilemma. It’s the stuff of high drama, and where REDSHIFT #5 does the moral dilemma a little better than others is through the way Tak stops just short of revealing the resolution for a killer cliffhanger.

From the start of the series, it was easy to see the Mars government was up to no good with the voyager program to find a suitable Earth replacement for a dying human population. Corruption, fake news, and false hope have been prevalent in every issue, but here, we get to see what happens when a mission that wasn’t meant to succeed returns home. There’s something about powers and systems interfering with people succeeding at doing the right thing that instinctively gets your blood boiling, and so Tak already succeeds by presenting a story that gets your outrage senses firing.

However, the real success comes when Tak puts Hellener’s brother, Sebastian, in the position to make a difficult choice. no matter what option he chooses, he loses and your heart breaks for the lose-lose situation he finds himself in.

If it wasn’t clear by now, this story works because it effectively makes you feel – outrage, disappointment, sadness, heartbreak. When a writer can make you feel, the result is almost always memorable.

Part of the emotional projection is due to McKee’s excellent art with Cheng’s colors. The characters are super-expressive, the alien worlds are Hellner visits are whimsical with a touch of danger, and the set/costume designs give readers that futuristic-yet-lived-in feel that suits the material.

The minor down point (it’s unclear if the flaw is due to the writing or the art) is the lack of transition from one scene to the next. The scene cuts are jarringly hard in spots, and you sometimes have to pause to figure out where you are. It’s a small flaw but noticeable enough to affect the reading experience.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.

What’s It About?

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

We begin with Hellener waking up after a surgically induced coma and a strange dream. Singh used the six months while Hellener was out to explore and find a suitable Earth replacement. Against all odds, Singh and Hellener found what they were looking for and entered cryo-sleep for the two-year journey home.

Two years later, Sebastian discovers he’s about to be a father. As he works to provide for his soon-to-be family, an alert comes in notifying all of Mars that the Aphelion has returned. Before Singh and Hellener are awakened the spaceport crew is arrested and Sebastian is brought before the Prime Commander. Sebastian is informed the ships were never meant to succeed and the program was designed to keep the population in line by inspiring (false) hope.

If the colonists find out about the new planet and leave to establish a new colony, the Prime Commander believes the ills of humanity’s past will return. The aging Prime Commander intends for Sebastian to replace him, but he can only do that, and avoid execution along with the port crew if they sacrifice Hellener and Singh.

We conclude the issue with Sebastian learning the truth about many things and being left with an impossible choice.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.