A series of murders on the harsh, backwater planet of Amaranth leads the Union to send one of its crack Criminal Investigation Teams to investigate and end the threat to its colonists.

Acidic rain, a hundred different creatures that can kill you, colonists mostly made up of criminals and runaways, and several groups of aliens, Amaranth is a dangerous but interesting world to explore. As beautiful as it is deadly, the planet isn’t just bare dirt and rocks but is full of forests, oceans, and a lot of vibrant plants and animals. Everything about the setting is detailed and stands out, in no small part thanks to the comic’s rich colors and art. These vibrant colors bring across not just the planet’s beauty but also the horrors it has to offer.

Though not a horror title, Storm Dogs does feature some pretty gruesome scenes (there is a criminal investigations portion after all), and the creation of those scenes is definitely scary, largely aided by the alien nature of everything on the world. While Issue #1 delivers on the crime portion of the genre, there’s not a lot of investigation going on, but it’s easy to forgive this oversight in light of all the information and setup for the setting and characters that the team managed to cram into this issue.

The cast of characters is quite large between the Criminal Investigations Team and the colonists’ leadership. This first issue does a great job of highlighting the differences between the two groups and giving each of the main characters a moment of focus, not an easy task in a single issue and with a cast just shy of the double digits. Because of this, there wasn’t enough to make me fall in love with any of the characters, but I’m intrigued by each of them and look forward to learning more while they unravel the mysteries of the planet and the murders.