In the Wake of Laconia

As of late I have lamented the fact that the comics based on The ExpanseThis series is set in a future where humans have colonized the Solar System, but then have to contend with alien tech that upends their whole civilization. haven’t really found their right footing. The two volumes I reviewed, The Expanse: Origins and The Expanse (Vol. 2), both felt like they were grasping for relevancy, attempting to fill in stories we already knew with scenes that really didn’t matter. We already knew the backstory for Holden and how he was kicked out of the Navy. Seeing it in detail didn’t change our understanding of him as a character. And the same goes for Bobbie and Avasarala running an investigation into Mars between the events of the fourth and fifth seasons. We already knew how Bobbie worked her way into the black markets, and we saw where her investigation led. The “middle section” that was added by the comics didn’t expand the story in any meaningful way.

Clearly, the way to give the comics some true relevancy would be to find a way to tell truly new stories that weren’t just fleshing out bits of history we already knew. And there is an era ripe for that kind of exploration, that even the authors of the original books didn’t focus on: the span of thirty or so years between the sixth and seventh books. That span also just so happens to line up with where the television series ends at the finale of the sixth (and so far final) season of the show, and it’s a point in the history that fans are eager to see while the wait to hear if there will ever be a continuation of the television series down the road.

The comics are finally exploring that time period now, with the intent of adding new adventures to the years between, and they start with The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, an adventure set one year after the defeat of Marcos Inaros, as the connected series of worlds falls under the guidance and control of the Transport Union. This first part (of a three-part series of volumes, spanning twelve total comic issues) sets the stage for the adventure to come, with our merry band of privateers aboard the Rocinante dealing with a new charismatic foe intent on shaking up the status quo and causing problems for all the space-faring factions of humanity.

The crew of the Rocinante are set on a rescue mission, attempting to save a freight hauler that’s under attack. Unfortunately they arrived too late, and the ship, which was carrying much needed live soil for the various human colonies, was destroyed. This has been happening with increasing regularity, with ships getting attacked by a fleet of pirate ships, flying under the banner of a mysterious leader, but whenever help arrives, the ships have already fled, long gone and unable to be stopped.

This mystery leads the crew to a conspiracy, a group of covert agents working within the Transport Union, keeping track of all the ships. And this all ties back to Laconia and its charismatic leader, Winston Duarte. He has plans to remake the whole of human civilization, and he needed agents everywhere to make his dream a reality. But while Laconia is sealed off from the rest of the Union, these agents are still out there, still lurking, and what they have planned next could cause its own share of problems for the Transport Union, Earth, and Mars as well.

As a twelve-issue series, it’s expected that the story will take time getting going. If we view these comics as single episodes in a larger “season”, then the first four issues (which comprise volume one of The Expanse: Dragon Tooth) are responsible for the “table setting” of the season. We need to get back into the flow of the series, be reminded of the state of play for our various characters, and then start to get an inkling of where the story will be going as it moves forward into the second and third volumes.

Pacing is key, and, if I’m being honest, I’m not entirely certain that this first volume quite nails it. Yes, it does feel like a table-setting story, and that is kind of a problem. You want to get invested in the story, to enjoy where it’s going even while we’re seeing the first early scraps of information that haven’t even truly coalesced into the full plotline, and this first volume doesn’t quite get us there. It takes four issues for us to even learn what villain we’re really going to be fighting in the story, and that feels a little strange. The series keeps its cards so close to its chest just so it can have a cliffhanger ending for the last pages of the fourth issue (i.e., the end of this first volume) that it feels like the four issues leading up to it were all just setup and nothing more.

And that would be fine if the setup invested itself in the right aspects of the story. This is The Expanse, and the reason we keep coming back is for the characters we know and enjoy. Holden, Naomi, Amos, Peaches, Bobby, and Chrisjen. The episodes of the series gave us time to hang out with these characters and enjoy them, not just in the loud moments but also the quiet ones. We could see how the missions wore on Holden, see the spark of battle from Bobbie when the adventure got interesting, feel the frustration from Avasarala whenever she had to get really political. What this series lacks are those moments.

It’s weird to say but this first volume of Dragon Tooth is so focused on setting up its convoluted story and getting all the secret double-agents in place that it doesn’t have the time to let us care about anything that’s going on. We have to learn about the secret fleet of pirates, how they have double-agents everywhere, how they have a hack in the Transport Union systems that communicates where all the ships of the fleet are, and this takes up all the time the comic has. We don’t get a lot of little moments with the characters, outside of one scene with Peaches, and it leaves us in a situation where we can see our characters but we hardly feel like they’re really there.

The scene with Peaches is pretty good, though. She is at a club with Amos and Bobbie on Medina Station, and then has to leave because all her bio-implants start freaking out from the noise and movement and people. This forces her to find a quiet spot, to breathe, and she ends up chatting with an old man on Medina who still has his faith in God. It subtly fleshes in characters, adds perspective to events we saw from before, and gives us time to just enjoy the world in comic book form. This is a solid moment and I wish we had more little asides like this because it adds the realism of the world the comic is lacking.

Which is a pity because the design of the comic is spot on. With art by Rubine for these four issues (and they would also work on issue five as well), the feel of the world and characters is carried over well from the television show. I wasn’t exactly enamored with the art on the previous The Expanse comics; while it wasn’t bad enough for me to complain about, it had a sketchy style that didn’t entirely mesh with the vibe of the franchise. Rubine, though, has a slick feel to their art that also perfectly captures the look of the characters and the detail of the world. The comic looks great, making it appear like The Expanse even if the story isn’t there.

It’s not bad enough to stop reading, though. I already have the second volume in my hands to read over. I just think that it could be better. It’s missing the spark that would make it feel alive. It needs heart and soul and, so far, the story is sorely lacking enough of that. It can hit those beats once in a while, but those are the moments fans of the series crave. If we could get more of that, this series would really shine. A solid adventure paired with great character moments and a lovingly crafted world are the exact reasons why fans love The Expanse. So far the comic has two of the three factors. Hopefully, as it moves forward, it can nail all three.