s one member puts it, The Wake is "a gigantic, interstellar convoy" of
many alien races banded together "in search of adventure, of riches, or I
don't know what." One species among the Wake has a tangible goal,
however--the Hottard, a race of six-limbed, six-eyed bipeds who require
intensely hot environmental conditions, are dying in droves on their
cramped, plague-ridden ships. They require new, larger living spaces if
their people are to survive. With that goal in mind, and with The Wake's
permission, a single representative of the race claims a virgin planet with
no intelligent indigenous life and sets about "Hotta-forming" it to his
people's needs by moving it closer to its sun. The process will ultimately
kill the planet's lush forests and diverse wildlife, but it will keep the
Hottard from extinction.
Unfortunately for all involved, the planet does have a sentient
resident--a human castaway named Navee. Stranded and orphaned when her
people's ship crashed, and raised from infancy by surviving machines, she
grew into a feral, lanky, energetic adolescent capable of fending for
herself. After a stray projectile from her slingshot destroys the tiny ship
of a telepathic Wake scout, the Hottard representative, the Madjestee
Heiliig, notices her and realizes that the planet is not as ripe for
claiming as The Wake had thought. Protocol would dictate that the Madjestee
stop the Hotta-forming process at once to avoid damaging the intelligent
creature or her long-buried ship. In the interest of scientific progress,
Navee should be carefully captured and studied along with her environment
and any remnants of her people's technology.
Instead, the Hotta attempts to cover up the discovery, hoping to
accelerate the reclamation process and save as many Hottard as possible.
Drone workers are dispatched to capture Navee for study, but once that
proves difficult, they're ordered to kill her and bring back the body as
proof that her ship can be safely destroyed. Comprehending alien technology
and motives are beyond Navee, who's only beginning to realize that there's
something more to life than eating and sleeping. But she understands the
basic fact that something strange is deliberately killing her planet, and
she's determined to fight it face to face and hand to hand.
Lavish art and thoughtful plot
This first chapter of this popular French comic-book series not only tells
a complete story, but also sets the stage for more to come. It's a
particularly lavishly decorated stage--Wake is illustrated in
meticulous detail, with a central character who looks like she came from
Richard and Wendy Pini's Elfquest and a supporting cast that looks
more like the stars of a particularly vivid anime mecha serial. The color
in this book is gorgeous, with deep, rich shades and spectacular blends
highlighting the expressive but finely crafted art.
The story itself is serviceable and a clean, easy read, though it takes
a few glib shortcuts and tends to move a bit quickly. Perhaps its most
interesting aspect is that the Madjestee's horrific actions--murder,
conspiracy and destruction of an ecosystem--aren't glossed over, and the
alien's personality is clearly established as arrogant, dismissive and
possibly a bit insane (the honorific title "Mad-jest-ee" is a fairly
transparent pun on the alien's nature and the word "majesty"), but at the
same time, its motivations are understandable and it's allowed to show
signs of, for lack of a better word, humanity. A scene where the Madjestee
wearily confronts a holographic representation of its lover, who explains
the dire straits their race has come to, highlights the fact that this is
not a one-sided, simplistic struggle between idealized icons of good and
evil. Navee is defending her home, but her actions are unnecessarily
selfish--as a lone individual, she hardly needs the entire planet to
herself. The Madjestee, by contrast, is trying to save lives, but is
cutting ethical corners in the process. Writer Jean David Morvan makes it
quite clear which one is the hero and which is the villain, but he at least
ensures that readers' sympathies are a bit reluctant.
Wake quickly sold out its initial American printing, and a
second edition is currently in the works. That's not surprising; this
moderately thoughtful, entertaining comic has instant, intense visual
appeal. But under the remarkably pretty package is a solid framework that
holds up to sustained scrutiny.
