Space Corps #0 consists of four distinct stories that each introduce a main character belonging to the same spacefaring military unit. Each of these stories has a distinct tone to it, some focusing on darker story elements, while others highlight the series’ wacky sense of humor.

The art in Space Corps is top notch. I really love the way Beck uses colors and especially color filters to set the tone and help tell the stories. The art style works incredibly well with the series’ sense of humor, which somehow manages to be subtle while staring you straight in the eye. Beck has a mastery over how his characters hold themselves, and it adds so much to the more humorous moments and the more dramatic situations, conveying sadness, pride, anger, and drunkenness, among other emotions and states of being, perfectly, without having to rely on any lettering tricks to ensure these emotions come through on the page.

The alien designs are a bizarre mix of familiar Earth creatures with classic alien concepts.  For example, you might have a species that looks like an anthropomorphized bulldog but appears to be made out of obsidian and lava. Other characters take this bizarre mix to a whole new level, such as Corporal Hive, a being who in reality is thousands of sentient bees that work together to control a spacesuit the way most species operate a starship. At first, these designs felt a bit silly, but, by the end of the issue, I was brought around to the idea of bee soldiers and lizard women as the characters of this tale. One detail of the universe I particularly love is that it’s not filled with humans. There are human characters, sure, but they are not the starship captains or even the default crewmembers, but just one more species among an incredibly diverse array.

This #0 issue doesn’t tell one story, but rather serves as an introduction to the cast, and, though only a few pages are devoted to each of them, did an amazing job connecting me to each of these characters. In an ironic turn, I feel closer to the three alien characters, whose stories did more to humanize them than the human characters did. The one regret with this tactic of four distinct tales is there is no room to have the characters interact and get a feel for how they play off one another, but as far as introductions go, I think Space Corps #0 does its job well.

Space Corps is available to read over at spacecorpscomic.com/wordpress, where the team has started in on Issue #1. In addition, if you’ve got to have a print copy, signed copies of Space Corps #0 are available here.