Review – Silicon Bandits #1 (Magma Comix)

April 19, 2024

2–4 minutes

Publisher: Magma Comix
Writer: Jason Starr
Artist: Dalibor Talajić
Colours: Stjepan Bartolić
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Release Date: 10th April 2024

After a stellar first offering with Principles of Necromancy, new publisher Magma Comix’s launch slate continued last week with sci-fi heist series Silicon Bandits from crime novelist Jason Starr and artist Dalibor Talajić. The first issue introduced us to the husband and wife programmer team of Aurora Withers and Kenji Sato, fresh from the announcement of the latest model of their acclaimed android series. Faster, stronger and smarter than all forty-six previous versions, the ‘Crane Forty-Seven’ promises to cement the company they work for as a “military and economic juggernaut” for years to come.

Unfortunately, the reward for their continued brilliance turns out to be a swift firing from CEO Etan Crane (“you really thought you could design a project that would eliminate jobs, yet yours would be safe?”), leaving them both with no career, no income and no real future. However, it seems that Kenji has a plan to recoup some of their losses… can anyone say Android Heist??

I absolutely love the methodical pace Starr and Talajić adopt here, letting their characters take the focus while unveiling the plot and world-building gradually. Aurora is the driven one, fueled by a desire to be great and continue to evolve their technology to unheard of heights, while Kenji seems to have had quite enough of their high-pressure lifestyle and wants to take a step back and perhaps even start a family. The contrast between the two is intriguing, and made even more so when Kenji who comes up with the controversial plan, unveiling the “family” of android prototypes he’s been working on in secret and explaining his high-risk heist.

While there isn’t much in the way of visual spectacle here, Talajić does a great job of building this new world on the page, providing us with some expressive characters and several key emotional beats along the way. His style is subtle and detailed, a stark departure from his Marvel work (which includes the gloriously bombastic “Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe”), which works well alongside colourist Stjepan Bartolić and letterer Shawn Lee to present a sedate, calm feel that promises to ramp up significantly in the issues to come.

The timeliness of a book focusing on the ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence is hard to understate, but Starr manages to explore these themes without going too heavily-handed into the “right or wrong” argument (although for clarity, A.I. art is 100% wrong) Instead, we get a glimpse at a slightly bleak future where technology is everything and powerful CEOs care about little more than the bottom line. Tough to imagine, right?

Describing your comic as “Blade Runner meets Oceans Eleven” is almost setting your readers up to be disappointed, but I’m happy to report that Starr, Talajić and the rest of the creative team absolutely nail that lofty claim. And while the “heist” portion of the story is yet to come, the scene-setting and character development in this first issue ensures that when the sparks do start flying, there’s going to be a lot more of an emotional investment in what happens than if we hit the ground running from the get-go. Another interesting, well considered new book from Magma Comix that’s well worth a look.

Rating: 3.5/5.

[PREVIEW ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]