Becstar #1-2: The Crystals Know The Story

Becstar a fascinating read for me, as I love both science fiction and mystical stories, and this comic masters both. Becstar, its main protagonist, has a history that may finally be catching up with her. In the first issue, we learn a little about Bec’s history and that her best friend Sally has not idea that Bec was a part of a mercenary crew. As this realization unfolds, it prompts hilarious scenes where we see Sally pouting about not knowing this part of Bec. We also learn that she was really close to Anyssa, the holder of the Creation Gauntlet, in what is shown, through her interactions with the AI version of Anyssa, as a past romance. It seems that when the mercenary crew decided to split up, Bec and Anyssa had one last time together where she created the homing beacon Bec’s current crew is searching for in this issue. All these story bits slowly unfold in #2.

I like Joe Corallo’s approach of gradually revealing the character to the reader, it brings interest and excitement in continuing the story. Plus, being the mercenaries’ crew so small, it allows the reader to truly and easily learn about the different characters. Lorenzo Colangeli creates an interesting art style for telling this story, with cartoony, fitting expressions to its subject matter and genre. I feel that the scenes of Paprika using the Staff of Clairvoyance are immensely striking. By visually depicting the distortion in the character’s face, it is easy to see the staff in action and it gives me the impression that there might be a larger cost in using these artifacts. The use of colors is strikingly original as well, with muted colors in flashback scenes and a charmingly impacting palette for these characters.