Venus Review
Venus is a four issue mini series from Boom! Studios, written by Rick Loverd and illustrated by Huang Danlan. When a manned mission to Venus is sabotaged the survivors must find a way to survive with limited supplies in harsh conditions. The set up initially feels a lot like The Martian. One of the characters even remarks “I mean, what do I know. I’m just the botanist”. The plot very quickly takes a turn in a different direction though. In fact every issue has genuinely surprising plot twists.
Often it can take a couple of issues to get to grips with sci-fi comics as the writer sets up the world and introduces the characters. Here though Rick Loverd tells us everything we need to know and gets the ball rolling within a couple of pages. It’s quite an impressive bit of writing that allows us to get stuck right into the action without ever feeling lost or confused.
Huang Danlan’s art has it’s strengths and weaknesses. There are initially a lot of panels with no backgrounds, although this does improve in later issues. There were also a couple of wide shots that I thought didn’t have the level of detail that was really required. Much better though is his character work. Each character has distinctive facial features full of life, no stiff looking figures. This is something even seasoned artists can struggle with so it’s nice to see Danlan handle it well.
Loverd and Danlan are both really solid storytellers who tell a really enjoyable tale. It’s a shame that it ends so abruptly as it feels like there is still a lot of story left. I don’t know if there are any plans to continue Venus but i’d love to revisit this world, there is a lot of potential here.
