Review – Battlestar Galactica: Starbuck #1 (of 4)

Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Tony Lee
Artist: Eman Casallos
Release Date: 20th November 2013

This spin-off skims over the past of Battlestar Galactica’s most cherished rogue – Starbuck. The origin of a hard drinking, womanising, chain smoking, Viper pilot sounds like a sure thing, but it is spread very thinly. So far it reads like a piece of self- indulgent closure for fans who want to see Starbuck meet the Adama family without being particularly interesting along the way.

The comic does well to avoid any kind of narrative but the dialogue is unremarkable and corny with nothing in the way of humour. It makes it hard to care about anything that is said and it’s hard for the reader to settle due to the timeline constantly jumping several years (or yahrens) at a time. When I caught sight of Wyler – the awesome looking rascal Starbuck is understudy to – I thought I was in for a treat. Just then, after a couple of nuggets of wisdom, I’m fast-forwarded 4 yahrens later and surely one of the biggest influences in Starbuck’s life is left in the past.

That’s the thing – so far we haven’t seen him become the rascal he is. He is already gambling, playing cards and chain smoking and I would’ve much rather seen him in some early scrapes as a youngster or learning/partying from/with Lieutenant Wyler. It feels tied down to a story barely mentioned in the show and one that might not be worth 5 issues exploring.