Follow Your Dreams Even If It Means Not Following The Rules: Starcadia Quest #1 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Welcome to the Frontier, a region of Starcadia where crime is common and would-be crews of freelancers gather before taking quests for the Alliance. We join Nixie O’Fix, a troublemaker on the run from a Data Guardian robot. She almost gives it the slip before being cornered and captured. Some time later, we join Starkid and his friend, Digits, at a coffee shop. Starkid wants to become a freelancer and go on quests just like his heroes in Starclaw. Digits wants to see him succeed, and, after some skilled and definitely illegal data-hacking, Digits helps Starkid get to the precipice of running his own freelancer crew. She even finds him a potential recruit in Nixie. However, Starkid is a stickler for the rules, but that won’t help him much when the Data Guardian robots get on his trail.
Starcadia Quest #1 is the beginning of a cute new sci-fi adventure from creators James Roberts, Aurelio Mazzara, David Garcia Cruz, and Christa Miesner with Andworld Designs. It’s a (mostly) wholesome and kid-friendly adventure that finds a hopeful would-be hero trying to join the ranks of his idols…even if it means learning how to break the rules.
If there is one theme that runs throughout Starcadia Quest, it’s that some rules are arbitrary and don’t serve anyone except those already on top. Given that this does seem to be a kid’s comic, that’s a surprisingly rebellious moral–but not one I’m wholly opposed to.
Starcadia Quest has an endearing cast of characters too. Starkid is strict rule-follower, Digits is gamer with a penchant for hacking, and Nixie is an out-and-out smart-mouthed delinquent.
The one main drawback to the comic is how wordy it is. This book feels the need to explain everything to the finest detail. A lot of times, it is due to Starkid’s explanation of the rules, but it does make the comic a bit of a drag in several places. It doesn’t kill the comic, but it does make it a little harder to engaged at times.
Mazzara’s artwork goes for a chibi anime aesthetic, and that does add to the overall cuteness of the comic. I have no complaints in this regard, and it does a lot for the book. David Garcia Cruz’s color palette is appropriately wild and bombastic, and that serves the book well too.
Starcadia Quest #1 is a fun and unique new comic that is a little too wordy for its own good. It’s smart and cute, but the pacing is bogged down by the mountains of text. I can still recommend this one fairly easily, especially to younger readers, but it does lose points for the verbosity. That said, feel free to pick it up.
Starcadia Quest #1 comes to us from writer James Roberts, artist Aurelio Mazzara, color artist David Garcia Cruz, letters from Christa Meisner and Andworld Designs, cover artist Aurelio Mazzara with David Garcia Cruz, and variant cover artist Nicoletta Baldari.
Final Score: 7/10
