#eric trautmann

General Davian, for example, is a shrewd man whose work as the head of a group of bureaucratic spies means he's both hungrily circling the periphery, and nurturing contacts at the center, of the spate of incidents and intrusions concerning the degradation of T-space. Davian heads the Imperial Bureau of Data Collection and Analysis, more commonly (cryptically) known as The Unseen Hand. Davian is a great character. His brilliance has known limitations, yet he fearlessly queries whether someone, or something, has infiltrated the empress's inner circle, and won't settle until he's uprooted every fiber of danger on Throneworld. As such, one ponders whether FS-3 will become allies, burdens, or obstacles toward that aim.

And what of the team itself?

Shore leave sets these buff ladies to their own devices: Jo, the big and impatient one, goes on a bender; Harpo, the silent sniper, hits the range (and at Jo's urging, tries to get laid for once); Pusher, the calculating corpsman and field surgeon, mixes and matches off-the-clock work and drowning herself in trash culture; and Hap, the combat engineer, takes to local academia, notably eager to chat about T-space interstitials (and maybe also get laid).

These habits and whatnot aren't simply six- or eight-page anecdotes of the co-protagonists readers got to know in the heat of battle; these events are cleverly interwoven with an array of splinter plots that expose the reader (and the characters) to the humbling and dangerous social and political dynamics that shape this universe.

THE FORGED v2 focuses as much on corrupt admirals as it does ambitious university professors, spends as much energy validating a super-hot warrant officer (and her very legit interest in Harpo) as it does expose the clueless, impulsive, and gleefully reckless nature of the empress (entranced by Victory's boldness). The current volume is written such that each of these stories, and more, explores the characters they profile in addition to adding one small puzzle piece to the larger, greater, and more compelling narrative. Cassandras are going missing? Davian's crisis intervention team has too many morons? Assassins around every corner?

A book this entertaining, and beautiful to read, no doubt, doesn't always have the life-span that comics fans typically find (and appreciate). Hopefully, the damning array of competent but luckless characters and their exquisite but treacherous intergalactic environs will maintain its pursuit of the remarkable long enough for the rest of the comics world to catch up.