Space: Above and Beyond meets Tenko, as a rogue human gets trapped in a POW camp run by Chigs on an alien planet, and tries his damnedest to power-play his way to survival. Mysterious, punky females, strange women, and everyone else who immediately sees him as a turncoat are against him. What follows is really good - it's pleasant, and still unfortunately uncommon, to have straight, hard sci-fi in modern comics, and that's all we get here - one race against another, and devil take the hindmost. It looks good, too, so dismiss all ideas about it being overly derivative, and dive in.

DNF - boring to me. Not interested in the story or characters after the first couple of pages.

Good sci fi and good art are combined in this action story which will please sci fi comic fans, because it combines action with spaceships, alien races, technology, weapons and a battle that Planet Earth is losing.

Joe Human is an ex soldier who has been court marshalled and found guilty. He was being transported for trial when the ship he was on was attacked by the Krael who are a race of aliens at war with Earth.

The Krael don't take prisoners and yet Joe and other survivors are taken to a harsh P.O.W. camp on a distant planet. There is more to this planet than meets the eye. Here the Krael carry out experiments on the prisoners but there are also secrets here which could turn the war around and Earth would have a chance of winning if only the military leaders on Earth know these secrets.

But who is Joe? And what is his real story? Joe is by any means a survivor and he tries to learn what the enemy is up to but his efforts are hampered by the fact that he is distrusted by other prisoners. He is subjected to experiments because the aliens want to know what it means to be human, but unfortunately for them Joe wants to uncover their secrets because the aliens have many and these are secrets that could determine he survival of Earth.

Joe is also on an assassins hit-list, just to complicate things.

This is gripping and fast paced. It is also very gory in places and overflowing with blood and guts, which is fine if you like that but possibly not suitable for younger readers. It is a great story with lots of surprising twists and turns which are gradually revealed. This appears to be book one in a series and it looks like a series that is definitely worth following.

Copy provided by publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I remember with fondness reading the Star Wars Jedy Academy books by Kevin J. Anderson many many years ago in a far far away... Ok, I shut up.

When I saw that Kevin J. Anderson was involved in this comic I decided to have a look and see if it was any good.

And it is.

The story of Joe Human, "Stalag-X" revolves around a war between humans and your run-of-the-mill aliens (you know, the ones that kill and eat the bodies; maybe not the second part). The Krael never take prisoners, are ruthless and they seem to be winning the war. However, to the surprise of Joe and some other defeated soldiers, the Krael actually have a prison camp on a distant planet, where they seem to be doing experiments on humans with a shady objective. Joe and other survivors will try to discover... Nah, he will just try to survive and break free.

The comic is gritty, dark, and violent. The story is one of darkness and desperation and the plot development and pace are nice. The drawing style helps, very 'dirty' and realistic. The characters, starting with Joe, are your 101-create-typical-character-for-adventure type, but engaging enough, and with an arc that is interesting and has a couple of nice twists (even if they are not particularly surprising). The atmosphere is really nice and the drawing style and the development of the story make you believe the war, the Krael and all that is going on. The plot falters a little bit in its roots, because it is not particularly original, but it is one of those that never gets all: humanity for freedom!

The themes of the comic are treated in a very shallow manner (all about what is 'human', and violence, and leadership, and belonging, identity...) and, as they say in Spanish, a little bit 'Manicheistic', just white and black. It is not a comic that will make you think, because, bang, plaf, kabumb!

It all ends in kind of a cliffhanger, so it will be interesting to see where the story goes. As it stands, is a quite fun one off.

6.5/10

Great illustrated novel, Gets you very interested in the next chapet

A gritty, fast paced sci fi thriller, with plenty of gore and discussions about what it means to be human. Parts of it reminded me of the old 'V' TV series - not the recent one, the original from the 80s. The art was very good, it was easy to tell the characters apart, including the aliens. I've always liked Kevin Anderson's writing.

An intriguing story that left me thinking afterwards.

Receiving an ARC did not alter my opinion in any way.

A gritty action-packed sci-fi graphic novel. Lots of visceral and gore. Reminded me of DOOM.

A creative idea. And while I enjoyed it, there wasn’t anything that really drew me into it. It was an interesting story. Anderson is a good writer. The idea was pretty original. The art was decent - the aliens were pretty creative. At least, I thought so. But there wasn’t a lot that really pulled me into the story.

I get really frustrated rating things like this - I didn’t love it, but then again, there was nothing in it that I could point to that made me not love it.

To be honest, and to be fair, the short story at the end (Deacon’s Story) was much more interesting. I’d probably give this book about 3.5 stars - but the story at the end will bump it to 4.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, and Vault Comics for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

Humans find themselves in a war with a race known as the Krael. They're losing. The krael seemingly cannot be beat. When the story begins a human ship is being attacked, is soon boarded, and prisoners are taken and transported to a certain planet for a certain purpose. What transpires is a story of pain, brutality, hope, and ever waning hopes of survival.

The artwork is top-notch. Emotions are beautifully captured.
The story is crisp, and flows like an eager river.
Excellent story.
Excellent comic.
I highly recommend it.

I was unable to download to kindle. to read this.
Thanks anyway