Six from Sirius 2 #1



"Eyeteeth, Part 1 -- Operation: Trojan Horse"
writer/co-creator: Doug Moench
art/co-creator: Paul Gulacy
letters: Jim Novak
editor: Archie Goodwin
associate editor: Margaret Clark
consulting editor: Jim Shooter

grade: A-

A lot can change in fourteen months. I'm not sure when, exactly, Moench and Gulacy began planning this follow-up (it's certainly hinted at in the end of the original story), but it somehow feels fresher and more alive than its predecessor. The action is solid and less forced, characterization hangs around in the background because it still isn't all that good, new characters are introduced, and the concepts run wild. Best yet, Gulacy drops the moody '70s feel from his coloring quite a bit, making this series feel more vibrant and futuristic. Of course, the true highlight of the issue is our first real glimpse at and understanding of what Sirius Hub actually is on page 5 -- simply awe inspiring. I'd love to see Stanley Kubrick try that. The intrigue going on down on Planet X proves interesting as well.

Still, characterization is going nowhere in this story. None of our characters have become any more endearing and multi-dimensional (heck, Starn, Skreed, and LaMasque still don't have last names...not even in their Sirius Hub computer files!), and I'm no closer to understanding their rationale in turning on Sirius Hub (sure its interest in saving Heavenstone wasn't entirely altruistic, but it WAS going to save the inhabitants of a densely populated planet and moon while also serving a commercial purpose), nor the Six's decision to go back to Sirius Hub in order to declare their going rogue. If they spend most of their time outside of Sirius swarm anyway, why not just keep going and avoid the inevitable consequences of betraying the Hub? Finally, exactly when was this decision put to group vote? Jakosa and Starn made the call when no one else was around. So, as far as I can tell, they've just assumed the other four will go along with this impulsively made life-changing decision.

Then we've got the introduction of Valis, the tough guy who's better than the best but also a loose canon not to be trusted, and a rival out of Jakosa's past. He's practically a walking cliche that, for some reason I cannot determine, clearly visually resembles Doc Savage, though the characterization is quite different. He and his partner, who just lounges around naked until he has time to screw her again, don't interest me in the least. And I'm still at a loss as to why Sirius Hub would ever entrust such a duo with the security of their all-important endeavor on Planet X, even after Valis asks as much and is given a nonsensical answer that he doesn't seem to think is a nonsensical answer.

Oh, and Valis has his own elite team that gets briefly introduced (Perdisa, Xekros, and Boltar), but not so you'd notice or care. It feels a lot like Baron Von Strucker's Blitzkrieg Squad: The team is just there cuz the good guy has a team too. Climactic battles get awkward when it's six heroes against one villain.

Finally, we have the mystery of Planet X, which appears to get solved entirely too easily. So two different races have now spent ages combing this planet for clues as to where its inhabitants went, but no one ever carefully checked the mysterious stone idols they left lying around? No one even accidentally placed a hand on one once? And yet Skreed accidentally throws his communicator DIRECTLY into one within minutes of touching down on the planet. C'mon, Moench.

Still, with Gulacy's lighter, less dated looking art, a better paced story, and some vibrant ideas coming across on the page, I'm definitely feeling more into this installment than I did with the previous storyline. Don't mess up a good beginning, Doug and Paul!



Minor details:

Sirius interceptors look a little too much like Tie Bombers from The Empire Strikes Back.

The title for this storyline is all sorts of awful. I get why the eyes and teeth are important to this story, but "Eyeteeth" is a TERRIBLE name for a four part storyline. Thankfully, the cover and indica say "Six from Sirius 2" instead. Would have paid good money to be in on that meeting with Goodwin or Shooter when Moench explained what HE wanted to call the series.

Also, why name this issue after Operation: Trojan Horse? While Skreed takes unnecessary time to explain what a Trojan Horse is to the reader like we're total idiots, he fails to connect the larger dots for us. In what way is Sirius Hub's actions on Planet X similar to the Trojan Horse trick? Are they trying to send a gift into the fourth dimension as a means of conquering it? This remains entirely unclear and thus doesn't really make sense as a title for this issue.

What's with the six pages of Geiger-like art at the end of the book? Is this part of the story? Am I supposed to understand what I'm looking at and why it's here?

I know some of you hate Moench's over prose-y writing, but I can't get enough of how he describes Sirius Hub on page 5:

Sirius Hub: center of a thousand-world swarm, and man's surest stab at the heart of God. It is both breathtaking in scope and insignificant against the immensity it seeks to shackle. Incredibly but merely, it is a rickety linkage between the 23 inner natural planets of the star Sirius, a shiftingly geosynchronous network of ever expanding and contracting transport tubes, station pods, and artificial world modules.

It is the product of 93 million asteroids smelted by ego and forged by mathematical dreams into something entirely new, mostly rigid, and offensively ALIEN.

Man as drunken spider, driven to mad Nirvana by the Mandala of his own web spreading ever outward to catch nothing but light from distances undreamed.

...wow.


plot synopsis in one sentence:

The Six are now wanted, with a bounty on their heads, by Sirius Hub, any hunters looking to claim the bounty must provide eyes or teeth as evidence (thus the title of the series -- really?), we meet Valis and his slut, learn that they are taking a job originally intended for Jakosa, they have some sex, we learn that Sirius Hub is an infinitely complex and ever moving interconnection of structures between planets, Valis is briefed by a Sirius Hub operative about Planet X and the mysterious race that vanished through dimensional gates there, Valis is to provide security while they continue the search, the six are attacked by a Sirius ship, they disable it and then go aboard to look for materials with which to repair their own damage, the ship is filled with fax bodies (apparently, everyone uses these things), they are caught by bounty hunters, Jakosa appears to have some kind of plan and even appears to be pulling out a tooth, but all we see is Zematin (in the fax Phaedra body) hidden amongst the fax bodies while the other five are taken prisoner, they are taken to Planet X and imprisoned, accidentally discover one of the gateways while trying to distract a guard, and witness Valis show up and kill everyone on the planet, apparently taking over the operation for himself.

Six from Sirius 2 #2



"Eyeteeth Part II -- The Ghost-Makers"
writer/co-creator: Doug Moench
art/co-creator: Paul Gulacy
letters: Jim Novak
editor: Archie Goodwin
associate editor: Margaret Clark
consulting editor: Jim Shooter

grade: A-

Two races long since descendant from masters and slaves battling it out with primitive savagery in a mysterious place between dimensions, and two teams of highly trained scavengers battling it out across a decimated planet littered with bodies -- there's great sci-fi potential here. And, again, Gulacy's art is coming across FAR more enjoyably than in the original series, though I disliked how much he'd changed Zematin's face -- so much more hardened and severe than before, even while he gave most of his attention to drawing the rest of her as she ran around naked for much of this issue. I suppose it makes sense for her to be so much more hardened in response to all that's happened to her, but what a tragedy, then, that should be better reflected in Moench's writing. Gulacy used to make her the epitome of beauty. I miss that.

Beyond that, as you might suspect by this point, characterization is going nowhere. Now Valis is somehow connected to Jakosa's past with Shardreena, and I just don't care, nor am I even remotely interested in why Chelandria, Valis' love slut, is suddenly so conflicted in her morality about killing on such a massive scale. Last issue, the idea to do all of this certainly appeared to be hers.

I'm beginning to sense a lot of good ideas here -- Gulacy seems very interested in depicting the tragedy of Zematin's transformation, and Moench seems to want to do something interesting with Chelandria, but none of it is quite working yet.

Still, the art is gorgeous, the sci-fi concepts are fun, and so I'm still enjoying myself at this point.


Minor Details:

- Okay, so Zematin's consciousness was downloaded into Jakosa's fake tooth. Wouldn't it have made more sense, last issue, to transfer ALL of their consciousnesses into the empty fax bodies lying around on the ship?

- Gotta love when the villain has a super effective tool for eliminating the good guys (the K-9 units -- why are they called this? They don't resemble dogs), and then orders that they be deactivated so that he can have the satisfaction of killing the good guys himself. This is especially convenient as a K-9 device was JUST about to kill Skreed and Starn moments before deactivation. Going further, these things have wiped out more than 95% of the planet (93% of archaologists, 97% of military personnel) and yet have managed to miss hitting EVERY SINGLE member of the Six from Sirius team through blind luck.

- We still have no idea what Operation: Trojan Horse was. Is that ever going to get explained?

- If Phaedra/Shardreena rises from the dead to provide the deus et machina again at the close of this series, I'm going to be pissed.



plot synopsis:

Valis' people kill most of the archaelogoists and scientists on the planet and capture Demandros, the head of the Planet X operation, Jakosa removes his false tooth with Zematin in it and throws it through the portal in order to keep her safe, she materializes in the fourth dimension with her body returned to her via her memories, two warring races exist there that both worship her as a goddess, the leader of one side finds her, explaining that they descend from the masters and slaves of Planet X and that he knows Zematin is not actually a goddess, Chelandria randomly and conveniently grows a conscience about killing, Valis convinces Sirius Hub that he has the gateways and thus, they should not attack, but rather should pay him ransom, the Six from Sirius infiltrate Valis' base of operations and escape with Demandros, Chelandria has a clear chance to kill them and chooses not to, and Valis conveniently deactivates the K-9 units.


LOTS of conveniences keeping our heroes alive at this point, and their characterizations still suck, but it's an engaging story otherwise.

Six from Sirius 2 #3



"Eyeteeth Part III"
writer/co-creator: Doug Moench
art/co-creator: Paul Gulacy
letters: Jim Novak
editor: Archie Goodwin
associate editor: Margaret Clark
consulting editor: Jim Shooter

grade: A


I am REALLY enjoying this. Gulacy's art seems to get more vibrant and more comfortable in its coloring each issue, Moench's sci-fi setting of an otherworldly dimension, speculated both to be a trap created by an anti-matter universe to bait matter as nourishment, and as a pocket dimension that is literally created by the thoughts of those entering the gateway, becomes more intriguing each issue, as does the back-story of the two races endlessly fighting to the death there.

If you stop to think about it, there's A LOT about this story that feels borrowed from the Roy Thomas Conan comics, but in a good way. This storyline feels like a better developed version of Red Nails, my favorite R.E. Howard Conan story, as well as a particularly famous Thomas/Windsor Smith Conan adaptation, and Zemmatin's relationship with the wise old Quatral is very remniscient of that between Bêlit and N'Yaga. In both cases, a fake goddess is worshipped by a primitive tribe, but their wise elder sees through this deception, maintaining it for the sake of the "goddess." In spite of the resemblances, I feel Moench has improved upon the source material here. I truly like what he's done better than what Howard and Thomas did, and that's saying quite a lot.

Additionally, while there are new revelations provided in this chapter, they are revealed a little more quietly this time around. Moench seems to finally understand that, while we require more information about Valis' relationship with Shardreena and the nature of the Survival Test that he, Jakosa, and Demandros took, it doesn't need to dominate the story, nor do we need to be inundated with shocking revelations twice every page. In fact, in many ways, I think what's clicking in Six from Sirius 2 is that Moench is no longer trying to write it like an espionage adventure. He's reverting to good old sci-fi and fantasy, and finding himself a lot more adept at working within those genres.

Finally, we're starting to get some real characterization. Starn ACTUALLY USES his weapons expertise, able to identify the type and quantity of weapons being fired by mere sound, and his being paired off with Skreed once again finally gives them an opportunity to become a likable pair together (though it hasn't happened yet). Additionally, Jakosa shows tremendous intelligence in speculating about the nature of the reality they've transported to; our first real indication that he's capable of doing anything useful. Finally, all this attention on Zemmie and her transformation certainly leaves her plenty of opportunities to become more compelling, but not much emotion nor characterization is coming out of her yet. Still, though, LaMasque continues to do nothing more than stand off on the sidelines and makes jaded comments. I don't think Moench has any more idea why she's on the team than we do.

Truly, the only problem I see with this comic at this point is that it has no true objective to root for. If the Six get out of the dimension they are stuck in, what then? Are they magically going to make their peace with Sirius Hub (I'm still not invested in their angst towards it) or miraculously escape from the center of Sirius Swarm with middle fingers extended in defiance (I don't see that happening)? Will Zemmie even be able to leave the dimension that has provided her with her old body? What are we working towards, here? Once again, this crack team of espionage pros are completely without a plan nor objective this deep into the story, and that bugs me slightly.

We're also going to need a little more backstory on the complex relationship between Jakosa and Zemmie before we get any more invested in where it's going. Jakosa has moved on pretty quickly from Shardreena, and Moench is expecting us to move on pretty quickly, as well, considering that their relationship was the very crux of the previous story.


Minor details:

-Are we supposed to start caring about, or even understand the motives of Chelandra at some point? Right now, she's just another plot convenience that's allowed the Six to keep living up to this point and will, inevitably, miraculously help them at the last minute again next issue.

- Really. Why is this storyline called "eyeteeth"? The portals look like eyes, Zemmie was in Jakosa's tooth two issues ago, and the original bounty on the Six's heads called for their eyes or teeth as evidence, but that's all long past now, and the title sounds TERRIBLE.

- Moench keeps referring to Operation: Trojan Horse, and I still don't understand if we're supposed to understand what the operation was intended to do. Understanding the mythological reference isn't enough, apparently.


plot synopsis:

Zemmie gets the full backstory on the Zavisha and Quatral conflict, as well as how they arrived at this dimension and the theories behind what it is, Perdisa and Chelandra still hate each other, the eye that transported Zemmie to the new dimension does not seem to work in reverse (though her arrival may have changed that), the rest of the Six are forced to go through the portal while pursued by Valis, Xekros (one of Valis' men) is thrown into the portal after them, Demandros is killed, Valis transports the portal aboard his ship in order to sell it to Sirius Hub (knowing full well that four of the Six are within it), Starn and Skreed sneak aboard, Chelandra sees them but pretends she doesn't, Grod manages to knock Xekros' gun out of his hands but then fails to collect it, leaving one energy weapon in a dimension filled with barbarian warfare, Jakosa and company make plans to obtain it so that they can get to the portal and get home, the Sirius folks make plans to double cross Valis when they meet to pay him, and Valis provides some essential backstory to Chelandra, which only strengthens her resolve to defy him.


Truly very enjoyable reading. I'm loving this story in spite of its minor failings. Moench and Gulacy are finally taking this series in a direction that works.