I wanted to like this graphic novel. However, the departure from the space opera that is Battlestar Galactica, to something more fantastical, didn't grip me at all. It feels like a classic episode with elements from the reimagined series, but more of a filler episode. As a fan of the reimagined series, I could feel where the creators took some inspiration from the 2003 series and tried to expound, but it just didn't work in this setting for me. What brought me to loving BSG is being able to relate to the story in a very real way without a lot of fantasy influences coming into play. This just felt completely predictable and over the top.

'Battlestar Galactica: Folly of the Gods' by Cullen Bunn with art by Alex Sanchez is a graphic novel set in the world of the 1978 Sci-Fi series.

The Galactica fleet finds themselves suddenly on the verge of a black hole. Evading means tearing ships apart, so the order is given to forge on through. During this Adama is injured and falls in to a weird coma. On the other side of the black hole, they find themselves with some very unexpected allies as they battle a lost race of Cylons. Adama miraculously recovers and the ships miraculously make it out again.

It feels like a classic episode, so it gets points for that. Unfortunately, that means a story that relies of Deus Ex Machina and a feeling of not a lot of real threat at all (unless you are one of the unknown background characters). Attempts are made to tie this in with the series, so maybe true fans will appreciate that. To me, it was just more meaninglessness in a story with nothing at stake. The art seemed a bit dreadful to me also. The characters have a loosely drawn quality that is never my favorite.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dynamite Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

If you enjoyed the original film, or the original television series, you will probably enjoy this series as well. It captures the feel of those works quite well.


In this story, the fleet is caught in a black hole that sends them to another part of the galaxy. To make matters more difficult, the Cylons pursuing them get caught in the same black hole and end up in the same place right behind the fleet. Then, because things cannot get worse, except they do, there is a different group of Cylons, and the humans and the original Cylons need to get into an uneasy alliance in order to survive. What caused them to travel this unexpected path? Without spoiling much, I will say it was an enemy from the Galactica's past.


As I mentioned, if you enjoyed the original 1970s series, you will probably enjoy this. The story moves along at a good, steady pace, and the intrigue slowly builds up. The art captures the feel and imagery of the series to an extent. It is not perfect. Some of the characters look better than others, but overall the art works. In the end, it was a light and quick read. It is entertaining, but there is not much more to it. It is a title to borrow rather than buy I'd say. I liked it; I like it enough that I would read others in the series.

While fleeing through a black Hole with the fleet, Adama is knocked unconscious and confronted by Count Iblis. While Adama is figuring out what is going on, the Cylons follow Galactica and the fleet through the black hole only to be confronted and attacked by strange Cylons. After Apollo and company return from a planet, action heats up. Will Iblis's plan come to fruition or will the Galactica survive to run some more? Read and find out!

I’m a big fan of the classic Battlestar Galactica, so I read all the books and comics I can get my hands on. The story is a bit strange – Apollo and Starbuck get stranded on a strange planet. Meanwhile, Adama and the Galactica are under attack by an unknown force. It’s never fully explained where the planet is or where these strange new enemies came from or what their motivation is. There’s also an odd part where Adama is being psychically attacked. There was a lot packed into this short graphic novel. I did like the addition of some familiar foes being forced to ally with the Galactica. And the retro feel with plenty of action was just what I was hoping for. I wasn’t a fan of the artwork at all, unfortunately. The characters faces looked bulbous and hard to distinguish. If this storyline continues, I’d be interested in learning more about these new enemies as a lot was left open-ended.

Bunn tries very hard to tie this into the show. He even references specific episodes. But I still found this kind of boring. The story was pretty well telegraphed from the beginning what was going to happen.

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A poor book, in anyone's reckoning, but a useless one if like me you have only the most minor smattering of BSG lore to fall back on. This either brings back too many characters from the old TV series or the classic comics or both, but needless to say I don't know all the references. We also get given a weirdly-coloured world where the artwork has Apollo turn into a hermaphrodite – which you'd never have expected from the comics of recent years, that have all been of a better standard than this.

A good story set in the world of the 1970's TV show, this Battlestar Galactica tale gives our heroes a shine, save the day, and work with unexpected allies. The art does a great job propelling the story, and has the added bonus of looking like everyone you know and love!

Original Galactica, not “reimagined,” so don’t whine about getting the wrong one.
Adama’s injured getting the fleet through a black hole, and his concussed mind has him thinking about Baltar and reliving the past. In the real world the Cylons are still following the fleet until they encounter the last enemy you would expect, and then Baltar shows up for realsies; this guy’s like a thousand bad pennies! In fact, the writers brought absolutely everyone they could think of back for this. . . except Athena!
Not happy with the deus ex machina that ends it. In fact, the story wasn’t much good from plenty of perspectives. There’s a lot of borrowing from other places; there’s even some Borg overtones in these new Cylons. For someone who was a huge fan of the original series, and who’d enjoyed previous graphics, this is really disappointing.
The artwork is watercolor-y, but the humans are drawn very strangely; it’s them in the general sense, like you might recognize someone at a distance, but in the close-ups it doesn’t look anything like the actors. Apollo in particular looks horrible. Oddly enough, Iblis is the one who looks most lifelike.
About a dozen pages of variant covers.

I enjoyed the story. I was back in the 70's with a show that I enjoyed so much. The author was well versed in the story lines from the show and used them to advance the plot of the book and weave them in and out. It was done in such a way that the person that had never seen the show could understand. The characters were true to there counterparts on the show. It was even a cute touch that they used the swear words that were written so they could swear but since they were made up words they got by the censors.
The artwork for the most part was quite good. It helped to move the story along. My only gripe was with the main characters. For the people not part of the main cast of the show, they were drawn fairly clear. Main cast however seemed to be drawn with features that seemed to be like they had their faces blurred after they were drawn. My guess here is that they could not get permission to use the distinct features of the actors so they muffled the features a little bit. It did take away some of the enjoyment of the graphic novel. I am hearing Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, and Dirk Benedict in my head because I know them so well, but the pictures just does not go along with the voice, especially Mr. Green.
It was a nice trip back in time to when life was a lot different.

Good story but I didn't like the art. Most of the characters hardly looked like themselves.

Very nice adaptation of the original material, sometimes the art was difficult to descipher who was meant to be who, but the story and the pacing felt very close to the original. I enjoyed the idea of going back and referencing original stories, and it felt like it fit into the TV world, the characterisation felt pretty much spot on, I would certainly recommend this to fans of the original series, but it might not appeal to fans of the new series only as it is quite continuity heavy.