by Sylvain Runberg & Serge Pelle
Cinebook
I said in the review of Volume 1 that Orbital, consisting as it does of just 2 slim 60 page Volumes, could really have benefited from collecting together as one self contained story. And reading Volume 2 I’m more convinced than ever of that.
At the end of Orbital Volume 1 the rather entertaining political sci-fi thriller suddenly switched and became a distinctly Aliens-esque bug hunt movie. And Aliens is an apposite reference. Because those oh so nasty Stilvulls that seemed so indestructible and deadly in those last few pages of Volume 1 suddenly turn into the same fall down dead with the odd laser rifle blast or harsh word type of Aliens from the second movie.
And worse than that, the 2 Volume structure of Orbital rather messes up the flow of the thing. Like I said, coming into this second volume I was expecting it to concentrate more of the Stilvull alien menace after they were thrown into the story with just a few pages to go at the end of Volume 1. But it takes just six and a half pages of Volume 2 to dispatch these suddenly oh so easy to kill beasties. And then we’re back to the political sci-fi thriller that composed 90% of Volume 1.
(Nasty alien menaces, incredibly dangerous, totally deadly, no possible escape. Unless the plot demands it, in which case they’re suddenly very easy to kill. A proble solved in Orbital Volume 2.)
This return to the political sci-fi thriller is, of course, a good thing, because Orbital is a rather entertaining example of good, huge sci-fi that European comics seem to do so well. And it almost, nearly, just about pulls it off. And then we get a particularly clunky deux ex machina ending that almost completely ruins the whole thing.
As we race to the finale all the various factions are out in the open, there’s a possibility of all-out war and the heroes really don’t seem to have much chance of stopping it. And then the problem is simply and immediately solved and along the way we realise why a couple of pages of seemingly pointless and inconsequential exposition was rather clumsily slotted into Volume 1. It’s like the classic Aliens moment (sorry – but it does fit so well) except this time they really do get the chance to just nuke the place from orbit. Maybe not so extreme, but very similar result. And an ending done this way always has the same sense of underwhelmed disappointment. It doesn’t completely spoil the Orbital experience, it’s still a fun sci-fi story, but the ending does somewhat deaden the enjoyment. Shame.
Richard Bruton.
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