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Dead Space
Dead Space: Liberation
A prequel to the events of the smash video game hit Dead Space 3, we follow Earthgov Sergeant, John Carver who’s wife and son are attacked by fanatics trying to liberate the Marker site where she works.
Racing to solve the clues his wife left behind, Carver teams up with Ellie Langford, survivor of an earlier necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, and EarthGov Captain Robert Norton.
Together they unlock deep secrets about the Markers in an epic adventure that will help determine the fate of mankind.
Racing to solve the clues his wife left behind, Carver teams up with Ellie Langford, survivor of an earlier necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, and EarthGov Captain Robert Norton.
Together they unlock deep secrets about the Markers in an epic adventure that will help determine the fate of mankind.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published February 12, 2013
3 people are currently reading
746 people want to read
About the author
Ian Edginton
798 books148 followersEdginton sees part of the key to his success coming from good relationships with artists, especially D'Israeli and Steve Yeowell as well as Steve Pugh and Mike Collins. He is best known for his steampunk/alternative history work (often with the artist D'Israeli) and is the co-creator of Scarlet Traces, a sequel to their adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. With 2000 AD we has written Leviathan, Stickleback and, with art by Steve Yeowell, The Red Seas as well as one-off serials such as American Gothic (2005).
His stories often have a torturous gestation. Scarlet Traces was an idea he had when first reading The War of the Worlds, its first few instalments appeared on Cool Beans website, before being serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Also The Red Seas was initially going to be drawn by Phil Winslade and be the final release by Epic but Winslade was still tied up with Goddess and when ideas for replacement artists were rejected Epic was finally wound up - the series only re-emerging when Edginton was pitching ideas to Matt Smith at the start of his 2000 AD career.
With D'Israeli he has created a number of new series including Stickleback, a tale of a strange villain in an alternative Victorian London, and Gothic, which he describes as "Mary Shelley's Doc Savage". With Simon Davis he recently worked on a survival horror series, Stone Island, and he has also produced a comic version of the computer game Hellgate: London with Steve Pugh.
He is currently working on a dinosaurs and cowboys story called Sixgun Logic. Also as part of Top Cow's Pilot Season he has written an Angelus one-shot.
http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Edgi...
His stories often have a torturous gestation. Scarlet Traces was an idea he had when first reading The War of the Worlds, its first few instalments appeared on Cool Beans website, before being serialised in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Also The Red Seas was initially going to be drawn by Phil Winslade and be the final release by Epic but Winslade was still tied up with Goddess and when ideas for replacement artists were rejected Epic was finally wound up - the series only re-emerging when Edginton was pitching ideas to Matt Smith at the start of his 2000 AD career.
With D'Israeli he has created a number of new series including Stickleback, a tale of a strange villain in an alternative Victorian London, and Gothic, which he describes as "Mary Shelley's Doc Savage". With Simon Davis he recently worked on a survival horror series, Stone Island, and he has also produced a comic version of the computer game Hellgate: London with Steve Pugh.
He is currently working on a dinosaurs and cowboys story called Sixgun Logic. Also as part of Top Cow's Pilot Season he has written an Angelus one-shot.
http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Edgi...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 9, 2019
Written by Ian Edginton with artwork by Christopher Shy (or "Ronin" as he's colloquially known), "Dead Space: Liberation" takes place before the events of "Dead Space 3", introducing readers and fans to the characters John Carver, Robert Norton and Jacob Danik. However, not only does it fail in setting up events, it creates several contradictions in regards to the storyline and the characters.
WARNING: This review goes into great detail about the story, so there will be spoilers here.
THE STORY:
"Dead Space: Liberation" has the unfortunate fate of being a novel-level story confined to a graphic novel. To put it simply, it is the epitome of something that feels hastily rushed and poorly put together. As it stands, it doesn't elaborate on anything "Dead Space 3" itself doesn't tell you in a sentence. That perfect opportunity to create a valid and coherent reason for the conflict of Earth Government, Sovereign Colonies and the Church of Unitology and therefore establish events that took place between "Dead Space 2", "Dead Space 3" and before "Dead Space"? Completely forsaken here. Setting up Jacob Danik as a creditable antagonist for the game, covering the origins of the Circle? Forsaken as well. Fleshing out the new characters (Jennifer Santos, Robert Norton, Austin Buckell, John Carver, Damara Carver) and setting up when Norton decided to sell the team out to Danik is also completely bypassed here as well.
"Liberation" goes that extra mile and creates some extremely narrative breaking elements. Carver tells Isaac in Chapter 2 of the game that Danik killed his wife and son (Damara and Dylan), yet Danik has no real knowledge of Damara when he meets Carver. He doesn't learn she's a Marker Researcher until they check his records. When Carver escapes, Danik has no real way of reaching his wife first; in fact, Danik seems more interested in killing Carver. Yet when Carver gets home, Damara and Dylan are already dead and resurrected as Slashers.
The entire scene implies that Necromorphs more than likely killed them, yet Carver says Danik killed them. Danik and Carver are set up as rivals; the soldier who lost his family and the religious zealot who took his family. Yet, the game completely ignores this relationship because the world has to revolve around the drybread protagonist, Isaac Clarke. Moreover, Carver himself is pretty non-existent as a character in the games when you compare him to the Carver character in the graphic novel. There's nothing about him, personality or character wise, that conflicts; but his presence was felt in the graphic novel. He mattered as a character.
In the game he's just the co-op character and largely inconsequential to the shoddy narrative. I.E., you could remove Carver from the game and nothing would change. Remove him in the graphic novel and your whole story is missing, which is telling about the necessity of his character. You also don't get to learn anything about him in this graphic novel outside that he's been severely demoted. The story never goes into detail about why, it merely implies that his bad temper is the reason for it. Nothing beyond that. The game does a better job at fleshing out the what little backstory the character has and for a book that was advertised as Carver's story, it fails in spades.
Robert Norton's character, however arrogant he might come off, is completely focused and dedicated to helping Ellie complete the mission Damara started; he's discrete and warns against Ellie brazenly suggesting they haul a man with a Unitologist bull's-eye target on his back on an already fragile mission. It never comes off as jealousy, but the comic tries to paint his reasoning as such because he uses "insane" to describe Isaac (and let's be real, Isaac was insane in DS2 and Robert has no reason to trust him, whether or not he was in a relationship with Ellie). This petulant, poorly written character that's presented in the games never appears in the graphic novel. Graphic novel Norton is sorely missed when you go back to the game and have to suffer through that trite writing.
Ellie is friends with the Carvers (Damara and John), yet the video game never has Ellie and Carver interact on a level that implicates familiarity with each other on any level. Carver is also protective of Ellie, she who is constantly put into the line of fire with no apparent showcase of her skills as seen in "Dead Space 2". "Liberation" sets up "Damsel Ellie Langford" perfectly, but her relationship with Carver doesn't exist in the game. You might as well be talking about two different characters.
Ellie meets Santos and Buckell on Keyhole Station; they're relative strangers who end up protecting her and that's about it. She doesn't know them, but they're trustworthy enough to take a trip into deep space with her to Tau Volantis. Jennifer Santos is a technician who works on Keyhole Station and knows how to handle a weapon and wears a RIG of her own. She does pretty well in the face of adversity, yet in the game, Santos doesn't appear to know how to defend herself against general enemies and is made completely helpless in the face of danger. Basically, Jennifer, like Ellie, is made into a damsel in the video game. Buckell has no speaking lines in the graphic novel (that I remember), he's merely mentioned alongside a more proactive Santos; he might as well not have existed until the game.
Worst of all, at some point that feels largely symptomatic of eleventh hour video game writing, Visceral Games decides to introduce the Sovereign Colonies, a pro-colonist government faction that apparently didn't take to kindly to Earth Government and declared war of them. On the surface, there isn't a problem, but when you delve into the narrative, they create a whole ton of problems.
Like I said, "Liberation" was a chance to elaborate on things the narrative of the Game never addresses; kind of the whole reason these tie-ins exist: to cover what the games can't fit into their narrative within reason. However, the writers don't take that chance. None of the Sovereign Colonies' history (either as an establishment or their conflict with Earth Government) is elaborated on, explained and worse pretty much left hanging like the entrails of a murder victim.
They're said to predate Earth Government, but there's no information in prior canon that supports that, making them more canon breaking than the character flubs. Damara finds this mysterious information on their Marker experimentation that conflicts with the established canon set up in "Martyr" and pretty much the entire game's canon. The story never explains how Damara found this information and more importantly, where she found it.
Damara as a character is a pretty pivotal element to the entirety of Dead Space 3; she's the reason the plot gets to where it is, yet the graphic novel doesn't care to give her any more spotlight than the game did. She's Carver's wife, she's Dylan's mother; she's Carver's motivation to become a better man and that's really all the narrative seems to care about, really.
She's never fully realized as a character; earlier summaries seemed to suggest that the story was going to be told from Damara's POV. They've saddled her with discovering the game's logic-leaping MacGuffin (Tau Volantis) and the Sovereign Colonies, but never once are her exploits covered and never is she made important beyond a footnote and Woman in a Refrigerator.
THE ART:
Christopher Shy, for all his talents, tends to fall back on what the comic book fandom tends to loathe Greg Land's latter career for. If you ever hear the the "LAAAND!" cry undulating down the rocky cliff face of a comic book store or forum, you know the deal. The bulk of Shy's artwork the further "Liberation" progresses is reused character poses and expressions. It's a literal copy/paste jamboree. Robert Norton, for instance, maintains the same "Jamie Bamber" stone-faced expression throughout most of the book, his body angled as though he were posing for a promotional shot for a film.
In the murky and blotted imagery, John Carver, as character who has the bulk of the book, has three expressions (bewildered, sullen and bewildered side profile). Furthermore, Shy copy/pastes at least two Carver poses more times than should actually be allowed in a graphic novel or comic book. That, and he doesn't seem want to maintain a maintain Carver's likeness to Ricardo Chavira, but instead uses the likeness of Clive Owen and other men more than I would actually like.
For whatever reason, Ellie Langford's outfit alternates at any given moment on the lack of panels; at one point she appears to be wearing a full-body bathing suit, the next she's wearing a sweater of some type and finally she wears the EXACT same outfit she's worn in "Dead Space 2". So if the logic of the graphic novel is to be followed, Ellie Langford has worn the same outfit for roughly three years and never thought to change her clothes.
The front cover for the hardback edition is blatantly lying to you; don't expect to find Ellie wearing a RIG, you won't find it on her. The Necromorphs are just as inconsistent as they were in his previous efforts with "Salvage" (there are moments when they reflect the likeness of Xenomorphs), but to his credit, they look far more frightening through his lens than anything Visceral could really come up with in a 3D render. That said, his artwork is beautiful and one of the highlights this graphic novel.
OVERALL:
The best thing about "Liberation" is its artwork and the novelty of being something set before the subpar "Dead Space 3". Everything else is problematic. I can only recommend it if you're Christopher Shy fan and just like throwing money on Dead Space merchandise. As it is, you won't find anything important here.
WARNING: This review goes into great detail about the story, so there will be spoilers here.
THE STORY:
"Dead Space: Liberation" has the unfortunate fate of being a novel-level story confined to a graphic novel. To put it simply, it is the epitome of something that feels hastily rushed and poorly put together. As it stands, it doesn't elaborate on anything "Dead Space 3" itself doesn't tell you in a sentence. That perfect opportunity to create a valid and coherent reason for the conflict of Earth Government, Sovereign Colonies and the Church of Unitology and therefore establish events that took place between "Dead Space 2", "Dead Space 3" and before "Dead Space"? Completely forsaken here. Setting up Jacob Danik as a creditable antagonist for the game, covering the origins of the Circle? Forsaken as well. Fleshing out the new characters (Jennifer Santos, Robert Norton, Austin Buckell, John Carver, Damara Carver) and setting up when Norton decided to sell the team out to Danik is also completely bypassed here as well.
"Liberation" goes that extra mile and creates some extremely narrative breaking elements. Carver tells Isaac in Chapter 2 of the game that Danik killed his wife and son (Damara and Dylan), yet Danik has no real knowledge of Damara when he meets Carver. He doesn't learn she's a Marker Researcher until they check his records. When Carver escapes, Danik has no real way of reaching his wife first; in fact, Danik seems more interested in killing Carver. Yet when Carver gets home, Damara and Dylan are already dead and resurrected as Slashers.
The entire scene implies that Necromorphs more than likely killed them, yet Carver says Danik killed them. Danik and Carver are set up as rivals; the soldier who lost his family and the religious zealot who took his family. Yet, the game completely ignores this relationship because the world has to revolve around the drybread protagonist, Isaac Clarke. Moreover, Carver himself is pretty non-existent as a character in the games when you compare him to the Carver character in the graphic novel. There's nothing about him, personality or character wise, that conflicts; but his presence was felt in the graphic novel. He mattered as a character.
In the game he's just the co-op character and largely inconsequential to the shoddy narrative. I.E., you could remove Carver from the game and nothing would change. Remove him in the graphic novel and your whole story is missing, which is telling about the necessity of his character. You also don't get to learn anything about him in this graphic novel outside that he's been severely demoted. The story never goes into detail about why, it merely implies that his bad temper is the reason for it. Nothing beyond that. The game does a better job at fleshing out the what little backstory the character has and for a book that was advertised as Carver's story, it fails in spades.
Robert Norton's character, however arrogant he might come off, is completely focused and dedicated to helping Ellie complete the mission Damara started; he's discrete and warns against Ellie brazenly suggesting they haul a man with a Unitologist bull's-eye target on his back on an already fragile mission. It never comes off as jealousy, but the comic tries to paint his reasoning as such because he uses "insane" to describe Isaac (and let's be real, Isaac was insane in DS2 and Robert has no reason to trust him, whether or not he was in a relationship with Ellie). This petulant, poorly written character that's presented in the games never appears in the graphic novel. Graphic novel Norton is sorely missed when you go back to the game and have to suffer through that trite writing.
Ellie is friends with the Carvers (Damara and John), yet the video game never has Ellie and Carver interact on a level that implicates familiarity with each other on any level. Carver is also protective of Ellie, she who is constantly put into the line of fire with no apparent showcase of her skills as seen in "Dead Space 2". "Liberation" sets up "Damsel Ellie Langford" perfectly, but her relationship with Carver doesn't exist in the game. You might as well be talking about two different characters.
Ellie meets Santos and Buckell on Keyhole Station; they're relative strangers who end up protecting her and that's about it. She doesn't know them, but they're trustworthy enough to take a trip into deep space with her to Tau Volantis. Jennifer Santos is a technician who works on Keyhole Station and knows how to handle a weapon and wears a RIG of her own. She does pretty well in the face of adversity, yet in the game, Santos doesn't appear to know how to defend herself against general enemies and is made completely helpless in the face of danger. Basically, Jennifer, like Ellie, is made into a damsel in the video game. Buckell has no speaking lines in the graphic novel (that I remember), he's merely mentioned alongside a more proactive Santos; he might as well not have existed until the game.
Worst of all, at some point that feels largely symptomatic of eleventh hour video game writing, Visceral Games decides to introduce the Sovereign Colonies, a pro-colonist government faction that apparently didn't take to kindly to Earth Government and declared war of them. On the surface, there isn't a problem, but when you delve into the narrative, they create a whole ton of problems.
Like I said, "Liberation" was a chance to elaborate on things the narrative of the Game never addresses; kind of the whole reason these tie-ins exist: to cover what the games can't fit into their narrative within reason. However, the writers don't take that chance. None of the Sovereign Colonies' history (either as an establishment or their conflict with Earth Government) is elaborated on, explained and worse pretty much left hanging like the entrails of a murder victim.
They're said to predate Earth Government, but there's no information in prior canon that supports that, making them more canon breaking than the character flubs. Damara finds this mysterious information on their Marker experimentation that conflicts with the established canon set up in "Martyr" and pretty much the entire game's canon. The story never explains how Damara found this information and more importantly, where she found it.
Damara as a character is a pretty pivotal element to the entirety of Dead Space 3; she's the reason the plot gets to where it is, yet the graphic novel doesn't care to give her any more spotlight than the game did. She's Carver's wife, she's Dylan's mother; she's Carver's motivation to become a better man and that's really all the narrative seems to care about, really.
She's never fully realized as a character; earlier summaries seemed to suggest that the story was going to be told from Damara's POV. They've saddled her with discovering the game's logic-leaping MacGuffin (Tau Volantis) and the Sovereign Colonies, but never once are her exploits covered and never is she made important beyond a footnote and Woman in a Refrigerator.
THE ART:
Christopher Shy, for all his talents, tends to fall back on what the comic book fandom tends to loathe Greg Land's latter career for. If you ever hear the the "LAAAND!" cry undulating down the rocky cliff face of a comic book store or forum, you know the deal. The bulk of Shy's artwork the further "Liberation" progresses is reused character poses and expressions. It's a literal copy/paste jamboree. Robert Norton, for instance, maintains the same "Jamie Bamber" stone-faced expression throughout most of the book, his body angled as though he were posing for a promotional shot for a film.
In the murky and blotted imagery, John Carver, as character who has the bulk of the book, has three expressions (bewildered, sullen and bewildered side profile). Furthermore, Shy copy/pastes at least two Carver poses more times than should actually be allowed in a graphic novel or comic book. That, and he doesn't seem want to maintain a maintain Carver's likeness to Ricardo Chavira, but instead uses the likeness of Clive Owen and other men more than I would actually like.
For whatever reason, Ellie Langford's outfit alternates at any given moment on the lack of panels; at one point she appears to be wearing a full-body bathing suit, the next she's wearing a sweater of some type and finally she wears the EXACT same outfit she's worn in "Dead Space 2". So if the logic of the graphic novel is to be followed, Ellie Langford has worn the same outfit for roughly three years and never thought to change her clothes.
The front cover for the hardback edition is blatantly lying to you; don't expect to find Ellie wearing a RIG, you won't find it on her. The Necromorphs are just as inconsistent as they were in his previous efforts with "Salvage" (there are moments when they reflect the likeness of Xenomorphs), but to his credit, they look far more frightening through his lens than anything Visceral could really come up with in a 3D render. That said, his artwork is beautiful and one of the highlights this graphic novel.
OVERALL:
The best thing about "Liberation" is its artwork and the novelty of being something set before the subpar "Dead Space 3". Everything else is problematic. I can only recommend it if you're Christopher Shy fan and just like throwing money on Dead Space merchandise. As it is, you won't find anything important here.
March 18, 2021
More in the 3.5 range
The problems that were rife throughout Dead Space: Salvage appear to have attempted fixes. Sadly, it's not really enough to make it truly work. I think the problem with the franchise at this point where they're trying to create a mysterious and horror element combined with some intense politics means that you really can't do all of this in a "short adventure" format like a graphic novel. You really need to sort of pick one thing and run with it. It's almost like the necromorphs should have never showed up in this at all, and instead just focused on character development and background for the new people you would meet in Dead Space 3. Dead Space's world build is complex enough where you don't need 100% horror all the time, but the need for the franchise to think it's fans need that in every aspect of the art is pretty telling. If they really wanted to bridge events from Dead Space 2 and make a quick story, they would have just left that out or left out the Earth Gov people or whatever. They're including too much content in not enough space to make the story feel well told.
Or... write a longer story... I'd rather them write a longer story at the end of the day.
Liberation mainly tries to follow the new character Carver in his journey until he crosses paths with Isaac. Ellie Langford shows up too, but I felt like she was almost an afterthought in this story... I kind of remember her being more important in the game. However, almost everyone else I don't remember, because it's been so long since I played that game. Carver's journey has him run into necromporhs and other human enemies. I read this a week ago and the story is already largely forgettable... so I was a little disappointed on that front. I liked it to a certain degree, I just wish it was longer. I just felt like they could never do the characters justice in such a short span of time.
I think they publisher also realized the artistic problems with Salvage and tried to find someone similar to do this art because the overall general style of Salvage fit the setting pretty well. The art in Liberation is great, if you ignore some of the repetition of the humans. I felt like this was primarily high quality story boarding art for a movie. Which makes sense, because I think Dead Space wanted to have that cinematic feel to almost everything they did. It just doesn't do as well if you're trying to have people with lots of emotion and such, but the scenery shots in this are incredible. They're definitely best so far from the franchise and I really liked looking at that. They also did a much better job of integrating the dialogue into the art for me to know who was talking. There were grammar mistakes all over, but at least I knew who was saying what this time around! Kind of an important feature for comic format.
In the end, I did enjoy reading it. I applaud them for trying to fix the problems with Salvage and the story was a bit better this time around. Again, the pacing is just too fast, so it feels rather unsatisfying at the end of the day. If I ever replay the trilogy I might try to read these comics along with it to see how well they integrate. But I think I'll still walk away with the same issues.
The problems that were rife throughout Dead Space: Salvage appear to have attempted fixes. Sadly, it's not really enough to make it truly work. I think the problem with the franchise at this point where they're trying to create a mysterious and horror element combined with some intense politics means that you really can't do all of this in a "short adventure" format like a graphic novel. You really need to sort of pick one thing and run with it. It's almost like the necromorphs should have never showed up in this at all, and instead just focused on character development and background for the new people you would meet in Dead Space 3. Dead Space's world build is complex enough where you don't need 100% horror all the time, but the need for the franchise to think it's fans need that in every aspect of the art is pretty telling. If they really wanted to bridge events from Dead Space 2 and make a quick story, they would have just left that out or left out the Earth Gov people or whatever. They're including too much content in not enough space to make the story feel well told.
Or... write a longer story... I'd rather them write a longer story at the end of the day.
Liberation mainly tries to follow the new character Carver in his journey until he crosses paths with Isaac. Ellie Langford shows up too, but I felt like she was almost an afterthought in this story... I kind of remember her being more important in the game. However, almost everyone else I don't remember, because it's been so long since I played that game. Carver's journey has him run into necromporhs and other human enemies. I read this a week ago and the story is already largely forgettable... so I was a little disappointed on that front. I liked it to a certain degree, I just wish it was longer. I just felt like they could never do the characters justice in such a short span of time.
I think they publisher also realized the artistic problems with Salvage and tried to find someone similar to do this art because the overall general style of Salvage fit the setting pretty well. The art in Liberation is great, if you ignore some of the repetition of the humans. I felt like this was primarily high quality story boarding art for a movie. Which makes sense, because I think Dead Space wanted to have that cinematic feel to almost everything they did. It just doesn't do as well if you're trying to have people with lots of emotion and such, but the scenery shots in this are incredible. They're definitely best so far from the franchise and I really liked looking at that. They also did a much better job of integrating the dialogue into the art for me to know who was talking. There were grammar mistakes all over, but at least I knew who was saying what this time around! Kind of an important feature for comic format.
In the end, I did enjoy reading it. I applaud them for trying to fix the problems with Salvage and the story was a bit better this time around. Again, the pacing is just too fast, so it feels rather unsatisfying at the end of the day. If I ever replay the trilogy I might try to read these comics along with it to see how well they integrate. But I think I'll still walk away with the same issues.
January 6, 2025
A prequel setting up the events of Dead Space 3, it’s alright. I honestly preferred the other media to Dead Space.
It’s the type of media you pick up once just to tie things together.
It’s the type of media you pick up once just to tie things together.
January 23, 2020
Крута промальовка, яка повністю компенсує слабкий сюжет. Можна просто дивитися на малюнки.
February 7, 2019
Did this ever make it to an editor? Spelling/grammar mistakes left and right. Made it frustrating to read.
December 7, 2020
У цьому коміксі величезні кадри. Я намагаюся почати з переваг. Але… Але знову не про Айзека.
Спостерігається стилізація одночасно під Темплсміта та фотоарт з ABC Warriors від геніального Клінта Ленглі, та самі зображення персонажів дуже розмиті. Відкрийте “Волганську війну” - і ви відразу зрозумієте різницю.
Головний герой - військовий-трудоголік, у якого проблеми в сім'ї, бо він, власне, любить вджобувати. І так сталося, що на планеті, де був той військовий, знайшли черговий червоний обеліск. Звичайно ж, релігійні фанатики спробували до нього дістатися.
Кілька натягнутих на глобус обставин, і ось вже головний герой мститься за свою сім'ю юнітологам, вбиває мерзенних і одночасно невиразних некроморфів і шукає загальний сигнал, який розповсюджувався з якогось центрального Обеліска (ну, звичайно ж!) на всі інші обеліски.
Це в нас пріквел третьої частини гри, і він цілком їй відповідає - він ніякий.
Відкритий фінал. Головний герой наче розібрався з поганцями, але вирішальна битва ще попереду, і вести її буде явно не він. У цій частині взагалі дуже мало пояснень, тому її, на відміну від самого першого тому коміксу Dead Space, не вийде розглядати як самостійний твір.
Так, в художника тут свій стиль, але до нього треба звикати. Занадто невиразно, темно і незрозуміло, хто чим у кадрі займається.
На моє власне переконання, цей комікс можна сміливо пропускати. Окрім нетипової… гхм… графіки (яка зайде явно не всім), в собі він нічого оригінального не містить.
Спостерігається стилізація одночасно під Темплсміта та фотоарт з ABC Warriors від геніального Клінта Ленглі, та самі зображення персонажів дуже розмиті. Відкрийте “Волганську війну” - і ви відразу зрозумієте різницю.
Головний герой - військовий-трудоголік, у якого проблеми в сім'ї, бо він, власне, любить вджобувати. І так сталося, що на планеті, де був той військовий, знайшли черговий червоний обеліск. Звичайно ж, релігійні фанатики спробували до нього дістатися.
Кілька натягнутих на глобус обставин, і ось вже головний герой мститься за свою сім'ю юнітологам, вбиває мерзенних і одночасно невиразних некроморфів і шукає загальний сигнал, який розповсюджувався з якогось центрального Обеліска (ну, звичайно ж!) на всі інші обеліски.
Це в нас пріквел третьої частини гри, і він цілком їй відповідає - він ніякий.
Відкритий фінал. Головний герой наче розібрався з поганцями, але вирішальна битва ще попереду, і вести її буде явно не він. У цій частині взагалі дуже мало пояснень, тому її, на відміну від самого першого тому коміксу Dead Space, не вийде розглядати як самостійний твір.
Так, в художника тут свій стиль, але до нього треба звикати. Занадто невиразно, темно і незрозуміло, хто чим у кадрі займається.
На моє власне переконання, цей комікс можна сміливо пропускати. Окрім нетипової… гхм… графіки (яка зайде явно не всім), в собі він нічого оригінального не містить.
June 27, 2023
I wasn't sure what I was thinking when I picked this up to read. Having played the originals way back when and fresh off playing Dead Space 2023 I really wanted more Dead Space content. Back in the day I do remember, rather vaguely, some good tie-ins so I expected at least, some if not more, generic preludes but boy...was I wrong.
Dead Space Liberation is a tiresome read and just after the first few pages I really wanted it to end. Reading this in 2023, Ian Edginton's re-used panels and character portraits made me feel like it was all AI-generated probably on Midjourney or something. I did, however, plough through till the end and all it did was:
1. left a rather nasty taste in my mouth just like how a Necromorph's acid bile would taste like and...
2. made me feel like I have had enough Dead Space.
I should have known better...and should have stuck with watching Dead Space Downfall or Dead Space Aftermath.
Dead Space Liberation is a tiresome read and just after the first few pages I really wanted it to end. Reading this in 2023, Ian Edginton's re-used panels and character portraits made me feel like it was all AI-generated probably on Midjourney or something. I did, however, plough through till the end and all it did was:
1. left a rather nasty taste in my mouth just like how a Necromorph's acid bile would taste like and...
2. made me feel like I have had enough Dead Space.
I should have known better...and should have stuck with watching Dead Space Downfall or Dead Space Aftermath.
February 4, 2021
This book suffers from the same issues as the 'Salvage' book that preceded it. A simple storyline - murky artwork - undistinguishable characters and confusing to follow. The sparse dialog and unusual artistic decisions - there are two panels that only show someone's eye; whose eye it is, is anyone's guess - only add to an unsatisfying experience. This series promised so much but id didn't deliver. The horror is absent, the atmosphere bland and the characters too glum. Not a good book.
June 9, 2025
The final companion piece to the Dead Space video game series. Takes place immediately before Dead Space 3. Back again with stunning visuals and reveals just how deep the old research projects involving the Marker artifacts went. Sets up the villain of Dead Space 3. Continues the theme of being as messed up as it can be.
June 24, 2023
This didn’t really work for me. Christopher Shy is an amazing artist, but he’s not the best visual storyteller. Ian Edgington seems to be trying to stay out of the way of Shy’s art, leaving the story to be quite thin and poorly paced.
July 20, 2018
Loved this one also , wish we had more !
May 23, 2021
The artwork is just really distracting, which such a disappoint because I love the dead space universe! Hopefully the others aren’t in this style
January 28, 2022
An okay foray into the Dead Space world. Let down by shoddy spelling and grammar, and a substandard story.
March 19, 2022
Decent book, quite short but good art. Love the call out style.
March 1, 2023
Shy’s artwork continues to be a perfect pair, while a more focused narrative sets up the events of Dead Space 3 nicely.
June 24, 2023
a bit easier to follow compared to salvage, fleshes out the backstory of carver, though some suspension of plot airtightness is necessary. a decent addition to the universe.
January 27, 2024
I have the same issues as with Dead Space: Salvage. It barely brought any insight as a prequel to Dead Space 3. Background colors are pretty, that's probably it.
February 21, 2025
Dope-ass art style and punch lines
November 4, 2025
This was a great story, but the sloppy artwork made this almost unreadable.
June 11, 2018
I can not believe this books were interesting with a great plot.
April 23, 2013
You can read this review in full here: http://www.trashmutant.com/comics-rev...
"Dead Space: Liberation" by Ian Edginton and Christopher Shy, published by Titan Books, came out the same day as "Dead Space 3" and it serves as a bridge between the "Dead Space 2" and 3 video games. But is it a worthy addition to the universe of Dead Space or is it a horrible mess?
The book follows new character John Carver after the site his wife works at is attacked by Unitologists. There are explosions and some more explosions, followed by necromorph attacks.
Carver comes across Dead Space 2’s Ellie Langford, who informs him that she and Robert Norton have been working with his wife to stop Unitologists and investigate The Markers.
Now, from my summary alone, you’re probably confused. Unitologists? Necromorphs? Markers? These things are part of the Dead Space Universe and unless you’ve played the games, you’re not likely to understand the details of this book.
But Edgington does a good job of writing it so you don’t NEED to know about these things. You’ll easily figure out that Unitologists are a crazy cult, The Markers create Necromorphs and Necromorphs are evil monsters. That last one gets pretty obvious with the blood and stuff.
So, when you take out the words related to the games, the plot becomes a simple Sci-Fi Action graphic novel and it’s done well. Things explode, people get killed, people get saved and people swear. And monsters!
For those of us who play the games, the book becomes a lot more interesting. We get a closer look at how The Markers work (or, rather, how people like the Unitologists react to them) and we get to see how Ellie is doing. She doesn’t wear an eye patch, though...
So, for people like me, it’s a fairly important addition to the Dead Space Universe. It reads well, despite the confusing way the dialogue is set out.
But how does it look? Well, when I unrapped it my first reaction was “ooooh” and for good reason; it looks sexy.
Oooh yeah. But yeah, that's a bit of a weird way to place dialogue.
Unfortunately, it looks best at first glance. When you’re reading it you easily notice how often photos are used and it’s also a bit difficult to tell who’s who at times. Is it Carver or Norton? I dunno, they both look pissed off.
But Shy’s work does fir the horror genre. It’s nice and dark and the images he creates look like something from a nightmare. I actually prefer the Necromorphs in this book than in the games. While he’s no Ben Templesmith (who provided the art for previous entries) he is pretty good. It looks gorgeous (if weak, in several places) and it serves its purpose admirably.
So you don’t need to be a fan of the superb horror sci-fi video game franchise like I obviously am, but it helps. And fans of the franchise should already be picking this up!
"Dead Space: Liberation" by Ian Edginton and Christopher Shy, published by Titan Books, came out the same day as "Dead Space 3" and it serves as a bridge between the "Dead Space 2" and 3 video games. But is it a worthy addition to the universe of Dead Space or is it a horrible mess?
The book follows new character John Carver after the site his wife works at is attacked by Unitologists. There are explosions and some more explosions, followed by necromorph attacks.
Carver comes across Dead Space 2’s Ellie Langford, who informs him that she and Robert Norton have been working with his wife to stop Unitologists and investigate The Markers.
Now, from my summary alone, you’re probably confused. Unitologists? Necromorphs? Markers? These things are part of the Dead Space Universe and unless you’ve played the games, you’re not likely to understand the details of this book.
But Edgington does a good job of writing it so you don’t NEED to know about these things. You’ll easily figure out that Unitologists are a crazy cult, The Markers create Necromorphs and Necromorphs are evil monsters. That last one gets pretty obvious with the blood and stuff.
So, when you take out the words related to the games, the plot becomes a simple Sci-Fi Action graphic novel and it’s done well. Things explode, people get killed, people get saved and people swear. And monsters!
For those of us who play the games, the book becomes a lot more interesting. We get a closer look at how The Markers work (or, rather, how people like the Unitologists react to them) and we get to see how Ellie is doing. She doesn’t wear an eye patch, though...
So, for people like me, it’s a fairly important addition to the Dead Space Universe. It reads well, despite the confusing way the dialogue is set out.
But how does it look? Well, when I unrapped it my first reaction was “ooooh” and for good reason; it looks sexy.
Oooh yeah. But yeah, that's a bit of a weird way to place dialogue.
Unfortunately, it looks best at first glance. When you’re reading it you easily notice how often photos are used and it’s also a bit difficult to tell who’s who at times. Is it Carver or Norton? I dunno, they both look pissed off.
But Shy’s work does fir the horror genre. It’s nice and dark and the images he creates look like something from a nightmare. I actually prefer the Necromorphs in this book than in the games. While he’s no Ben Templesmith (who provided the art for previous entries) he is pretty good. It looks gorgeous (if weak, in several places) and it serves its purpose admirably.
So you don’t need to be a fan of the superb horror sci-fi video game franchise like I obviously am, but it helps. And fans of the franchise should already be picking this up!
April 6, 2013
By expanding upon events unseen in the actual game, like all good video game media tie-ins should do, it's acts as more than a cash-in attempting to generate pointless revenue. Further fleshing out of relationships introduced abruptly in Dead Space 3 is appreciated too, as well as the treatment of a character who could always have just been relegated to eye candy, but still manages to find a place of her own within the narrative. It's fabulous writing, but the spotlight should certainly be shown on Christopher Shy's unique art style. Watercolors lend an eerie lilt to the already tense atmosphere, giving the disgusting creatures the appearance of emerging out of a never-ending nightmare.
Dead Space: Liberation Review on Popzara
Dead Space: Liberation Review on Popzara
February 6, 2013
This is the prequel to the Dead Space 3 videogame. It introduces us to John Carver, one of the main characters of the game. I found the art to be a bit mixed. Some panels I would look at and really be blown away by how awesome they looked, while others just felt very muddled. The story is interesting, and it gets bonus points for including Ellie Langford from Dead Space 2. I can't really comment on how necessary it is until I play the game, but I'm hoping it integrates nicely.
February 19, 2016
I love the Dead Space games and the world they've created, but this is a frustrating read. Mostly because of the artwork is so murky that everyone looks the same. Similarly the lettering is quite hard to read, making everyone sound in my head like they are talking in a very distorted way. The story too is rather simplistic. Essentially the alien mutation is activated on a distant colony and then its just fight fight fight, with a brief change of location in the middle. In short, a miss.
March 8, 2017
This is a fun short adventure between Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 video games. The story is pretty straight forward but adds little in the way of the Dead Space cannon. The art work is very stylistic however at times it is a little tricky to fathom out what is going on. Personally some of the panels look so gorgeous that they would look quite cool blown up to poster size and hanged on a wall.
April 19, 2013
This would have probably gotten three stars just for the art, the story was ok, but the constant use of the wrong to (to instead of too) was frustrating.
I haven't played the video game Dead Space 2, but I have a feeling that this graphic novel would've made a lot more sense if I had.
I haven't played the video game Dead Space 2, but I have a feeling that this graphic novel would've made a lot more sense if I had.
May 7, 2013
Best thing going for this book is the art, which is gorgeously creepy and obfuscated but otherwise it's slow going. Which is funny because the art might be the reason for this as I keep getting people mixed up.
May 25, 2017
More of the wonderful, eerie art style from Dead Space: Salvage with significantly more focused plot and action. Gives some great background to Carver, the Co-Op character from Dead Space 3, and the general set up for the game.
May 8, 2015
It was interesting to see the story of Dead Space expand a bit more. However, the errors were very apparent and distracting. I am glad I read it, especially being a big Dead Space fan, but I wish it had been edited better.
September 4, 2015
A basic simple story that takes place before Dead Space 3. No horror elements but a lot of action that is depicted by extremely unique art.
We get to see how the crew of Dead Space 3 meet up and assemble. Plain and simple.
We get to see how the crew of Dead Space 3 meet up and assemble. Plain and simple.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews