In her print debut, Ostertag (creator of the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist) provides clean, well-paced panels in which Colleen’s skin is a deep walnut color while Lucy’s is the color of pale hickory. It’s also refreshing to see so many different races and so many shades of brown on each page. The plot may be familiar, but the social customs of each group are defined so precisely that every detail feels strange and surprising. Socialites and factory workers and warriors all unite against the Derichet. One of the joys of the novel is seeing people from different parts of society, with no reason to trust each other, join together to fight a revolution. “It’s dangerous.” Colleen is a Cavenaugh, one of the Great Families of Comstock City, while the Chromatti are from the mining underclass although the former class orders have been upended by the Derichet occupation, tensions still exist. But: “Don’t let go near the Chromatti,” Jann says. She’s more interested in Jann, a Chromatti warrior who’s part of the resistance. After the pointy-eared Derichet invaders conquered her world about a decade ago, more than one of them has tried to woo Colleen. The most dangerous men in it turn out to be Colleen’s suitors.
That might be the theme of this graphic novel. When Colleen tries to warn her niece Lucy about the dangers of strange men, Lucy shrugs it off. An alien invasion tends to put things in perspective in Shinn’s ( Gateway, 2009, etc.) graphic-novel debut.
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