Port Of Earth Vol. 1 Review

Port Hi-Tech

Written by: Zack Kaplan
Art by: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Publisher: Image Comics
Review by: Andrew McAvoy


Four Issues. One Port. It's time for the first Volume of Port of Earth. Aliens come to Earth, not in war or peace, but to cut a deal. This is the aliens touching down at the time of The Donald. Earth's gonna build a port and its gonna be beautiful. You've never seen a port like this frankly, it's one of a kind. Problem is when alien visitors break Port restrictions and wreak havoc in our cities, it falls to the newly formed Earth Security Agents to hunt and deport. Let's see how this worked in trade format.

Okay so, there's a pretty strict format to this. Each of the four issues open with the same discussion between an advocate of the business interests who set up the port and a skeptical interviewer who is probing the flaws with the setup. This can seem a bit repetitive but it does allow the themes of the book to be underscored through the narrative laid out in the interview.

Meanwhile, the action is primarily exhibited through the tracking of the Earth Security Agency with the plot following George Rice and Eric McIntyre, who hunt down an alien who has strayed from the port. This ain't no normal alien though - think of those bad-ass aliens from District 9 or a Predator with longer arms. It's a pretty deadly pursuit and not without its fair share of action.

One point I would make about this volume is that there isn't much color in it. The tone is deliberately muted with blacks, whites, and shades of grey. To be frank, I felt like this book would have benefited enormously from a dash of neon, and some brighter colors being employed to accentuate and underscore the action. This might sound like a minor point but read as a trade in one sitting, the monochrome palette in the production can get quite tiring. The actual line-art is good but could have been enhanced a lot more.

Bits and Pieces:

This is a pretty solid book, although I think a few more issues loaded into this trade might have given a more rounded story. There isn't a full sense of completion when the book is finished. That said, its not a bad book, and as the series continues it may change the perspective on this opening salvo. Time will tell. It gets an extra point for naming actual companies in its list of insider interests in the Consortium, which made me chuckle.

7/10