Review: Farscape: D’Argo’s Lament #1

Part 1: If You Can Be an Idiot, I Can Be an Idiot

Release Date: 29 April 2009
Writer: Keith R.A. Decandido
Artist: Neil Edwards
Covers: Michael Dipascale, Will Sliney
Colours: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Publisher: BOOM! Studios

Happening during season 3 of the SciFi original televsion series Farscape (specifically between the episodes “Revenging Angel” and “Fracture”, according to BOOM!’s official summary), this four part mini-series follows Ka D’Argo and Jool as they find themselves in the middle of a political war in the City of Egrof.  Forced to end the war and “save the day” in order to get the much needed orujna oil (it’s the only substance that can keep the living ship Moya’s skin lubricated so it won’t dry out and fall off, exposing the ship’s inside to the vacuum of space), trouble, hijinks, and alien vs. alien ensues.

As a fan of the original series, I was very excited to get my copy of this issue.  The writing and set up didn’t disappoint.  Right from the start, this issue definitely feels like an episode of Farscape – you come in right in the middle of some kind of drama.  From then on, the Drama Freight gains speed as D’Argo and Jool go from a relatively small problem to a really huge problem.  The way D’Argo is written is very much like the way he was in the series: dropping space curse words left and right, and generally Hulking out over just about everything.  Jool, not so much.  In the show she’s very loud and complainy and whiney and Ms. Know-it-All.  In this issue, she’s much more reserved and subdued compared to her television counterpart.

This aspect even carries over into the artwork.  D’Argo is rendered wonderfully throughout the issue, and has a remarkable resemblance to the way Anthony Simcoe looked with all that latex on his face.  Again, Jool, not so much.  In fact, there were times when she looked flat-out horrible and nothing at all like Tammy McIntosh.  I don’t think it would have bothered me at all if Neil Edwards hadn’t done such a bang up job with making D’Argo look the way he did in the show.  However, this mini-series IS about D’Argo and Jool was a pretty annoying character to begin with, so the inconsistencies between the rendering of the two doesn’t detract from the issue as a whole, but it is distracting for an avid fan of the series.

For people unfamiliar with the original series but who are fans of science fiction comics, I think this would still be a good issue to pick up.  Keith R.A. Decandido does a good job of putting in a bit of back story throughout the issue that would be helpful for readers unfamiliar with Farscape.  The use of the Farscape lingo (“frell”, “cycle”, and “microt” to mention a few) may throw a few readers off.  In the context of the conversations they are in, it shouldn’t be too hard for those unfamiliar with them to figure out what they mean.

Overall, if you were a fan of the show and are looking for more adventures involving the characters, this is totally a floppy worth picking up.  Everything from the pacing, the banter, even the ridiculously long title are in the same vein as the show itself.  It’s fun, fast-paced, and involves aliens fighting each other – everything a good space adventure needs.