Review: ‘Satellite Falling’ #1: Familiar But Alien

A lone human survived the death of the one she loved, and escaped acorrupt Earth. She now makes her way as a bounty hunter, on a satellitefull of aliens. But someone’s about to turn her life upside down…

The new creative own book by writer Steven Horton (Amala’s Blade) and artist Stephen Thompson (Star Trek: Frontier) sets up a world of weird alien creatures but its intent is to tell the story of someone struggling with their humanity. They introduce a world where aliens are living together on a space station (which is referred to as a satellite, hence the title) and a lone human who telepathically records her thoughts and helps to narrate what is going on.

The narrator and main character is Lilly who is not a shapeshifter (as it’s pointed out the Chief of Police is) but instead has holographic technology which allows her to look like anyone. This enables her to take bounty hunter jobs which help to pay the bills while at the same time masquerading as a cab driver. She gets pulled into a job by the Chief but soon finds she’s in way over her head. The story has the usual setup of “Person for hire gets assignment but gets attached” laid out in the first issue. How many times have we seen this before in media in general? Still, readers never get tired of these stories as they always like to see characters glorify being a freelancer who can do whatever they want.

The plot is simple but the art really is remarkable. The backgrounds and characters helps to shape the world Lilly lives in. Thanks to Thompson’s artwork, none of the aliens featured in the issue seem like they are trying to be call backs or shout outs to other science fiction movies or series. All of them are new and have a distinct look about them. It’s refreshing to see some genuine creativeness being applied to a series.

The series seems like it’s trying to be Saga, which isn’t a bad thing at all since Saga is one of the best comic books on the market today. Though the first issue does feel a bit too standard with the plot, thanks to the fantastic creature creations and the theme of trying to find a piece of yourself after losing something, this book has the potential to be a series with a large following in the near future.