Wednesday 23 September 2015

Invisible Republic Vol 1 by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Sara Bechko

Invisible Republic Vol 1 by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Sara Bechko is the first collected volume of an ongoing comic book series. It caught my eye on NetGalley because of the SF/space aspect and kept my attention because of the female name on the cover. Turns out it's written by a husband and wife team (and illustrated by the husband), which I didn't realise until the bios at the end.

Arthur McBride's regime has fallen. His planet has been plunged into chaos, his story shrouded in mystery, until reporter Croger Babb discovers the journal of Arthur's cousin, Maia. Inside is the violent, audacious, hidden history of the legendary freedom fighter. Erased from the official record, Maia alone knows how dangerous her cousin really is, and what truly happened to bring him to power.

This comic hooked me pretty quickly. It's set in two time periods: the "present" after the fall of a dictatorship on the planet Avalon, and the "past" at the time the regime is coming into power. A journalist from the future finds a journal written by the former dictator's cousin, telling a story different from the official party line. The story is then split between his time trying to track down more information and the past as told from Maia's point of view.

I liked how the art style distinguished between the time periods through use of colour as well as a few actual year headings. Although it wasn't a hard and fast rule, the past tended to be more golden toned, while the future had cooler tones.

Invisible Republic is a story about revolutions and convenient lies. This first volume only really sets the scene, but it does so in a satisfying way. I felt that there was enough story for me to get a feel for the series but, of course, there's plenty more to tell in upcoming issues. Also, there was a nice cliffhanger/revelation at the end of this arc just in case you needed more reason to want to keep reading (I didn't, but I still liked the reveal).

I highly recommend Invisible Republic to all fans of SF and comics. It has a pretty rad female protagonist and also bees. I am definitely looking forward to continuing with the story when the second volume comes out.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: September 2015, Image Comics
Series: Invisible Republic, Volume 1 of on-going series, containing issues #1–5
Format read: eARC
Source: NetGalley

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