Starship Troopers: Insect Touch

Starship Troopers comics #2-3

by warren-ellis-paolo-parente, Paolo Parente (Illustrator), Davidé Fabbri (Illustrator)

A movie tie-in featuring both the comic-strip adaptation of the film "Starship Troopers" and a "prequel" which describes the events leading up to the greatest intergalactic conflict of all time - a time when Earth's forces clashed explosively with insect-like creatures.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Science Fiction

Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Standard 'prequel with cameo by minor character' appended to the film adaptation.

[MuhPatriarchy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unnecessary, not very interesting or well-written/drawn prequel that barely offers any new information.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fine anti-war novel. I appreciate the authors take on "Franchise" and often wish that society worked this way.

[Christopher Gibson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure what I expected from this. (Movie tie in) is usually a warning sign in my opinion.
However, the first two parts were not too bad, not ground breaking but original. The movie part was however just a load or tripe unfortunately. Some of the conversations and the characters who said them were not even correct.

[Marcos · Rating 5 out of 5]

assustador como parece com um futuro próximo ao nosso

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

[Iain Hawkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The comic is a good read. Not great, but good.

Anyway, taking place 30 years before the events of the film, the comic depicts first contact between the Arachnids and humanity. The Arachnids attempt to colonize Mars, but their Bugs perish due to its hostile environment (apparently the terraforming that occurred by Traitor of Mars makes the events of that film possible?) Deducing that the meteor came from Klendathu (somehow), the Federation sends a survey team to the planet. Arriving in orbit however, their shuttle is shut down by an asteroid, the shuttle crashes, and hostile contact is made. While what few survivours there are manage to escape, it's stated that both species are now headed for war. That they know about each other, and that now it's a fight over control of territory.

I should note that this comic is really riffing off 'Alien,' to the point that in some ways, it feels more like an 'Aliens' story. The group is small, and the Mobile Infantry are, in some ways, akin to the Colonial Marines. The no. of troopers is small, their equipment is different from the film (accounting for the passage of time), yet they're easily to mow the Arachnids down. It's actually kind of weird - in the films, it's shown that it takes a lot of firepower to kill even a single Warrior Bug, but here, the troopers do a better job with their 30 year old guns then the Mobile Infantry does 30 years later, with upgraded tech. Replace the Warrior Bugs with xenomorphs howver, and the high kill count makes a lot more sense.

There's also the cynical element. It's not outright stated, but it's implied through dialogue that first contact with the Arachnids is a boon for the Federation. Rationing and "Washington riots" are mentioned, and there's clearly at least some discontent in the Federation, but present humanity with an external enemy, and that means you get a populace easier to control, and a lot more enlistment (because apparently even now, service guarantees citizenship). Similarly, at the end, where the acting captain of the ship outright states that war is now inevitable to the survivours of the crew. That's not an entirely unreasonable assumption, but he already calls the aliens "Arachnids," and speechifies. And while the Arachnids did try to colonize Mars first, and DID shoot down a shuttle, their first contact with humanity resulted in the deaths of thousands of Wariror Bugs due to the humans' tactical nukes (the same ones in the film, stated here to be prototypes).

So, yeah. Story is good. Could have been better, but good.

Would you like to know more?

[Edward Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jean Rasczak, Rico's former high-school teacher cum Roughneck's Lieutenant in the movie adaptation of Heinlein's classic is the primary focus of the 1st two parts of this three-part comic novelization. We see a young Private Rasczak sent to investigate the newly discovered bug threat on planet Klendathu and lose his arm when the first contact failed. We then find him years later as an HS teacher who is recruited by the Federation to teach "History and Moral Philosophy" to Mormon extremists who live in the AQZ (Arachnid Quarantine Zone) before finally seeing him in Verhoeven's big-screen adaptation (the third part of the book)

Michael Ironside chews the scenery in the movie and drives his parts forward, sadly the same cannot be said of his character in the 2D version of the story. The timeline is too compressed in the movie, too expanded in the comic with much of what you see in the movie happening concurrently with the comic but does not mesh when viewed as an arc.

If you would like to know more...

[Ashish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.
The movie was awesome in the tongue-in-cheek satire and sociopolitical commentary, and absolutely gripping.
This struggles, laboriously trying to force in known characters in an unnecessary prequel with incongruous technicolor, cookie-cutter characters, pointless story and most unforgivably, completely flat and static gunfire and gore.
Come on, man. That's what both the original movie and comics in general are all about!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but at the same time, a lot of the military and tactical aspects of the narrative where lost on me. For this reason, I did not rate it very highly. Personally, I didn't find myself drawn into the story. Parts I did enjoy involved Ellis' intriguing political theories that found their way into the man character's narrative.