Rippaverse Comics’ Zalen is Out of This World

I’ve been sitting on my copy of Zalen: What Kills Must Die from Rippaverse Comics for a good while at this point, but I’m finally ready to give my thoughts on it. Like with all Rippaverse content, I did enjoy it. I found Zalen to be fun and full of action, even if the plot seemed a little barebones at time.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The central story is rather bare as it seems like mostly a set-up for Zalen as a character. The comic opens with him defeating a group of pirates/raiders who stole all of the water from a planet. He and his crew then set off for a new destination, but a malfunction occurs and forces them to stop. Zalen has to fight off some big, winged space leeches, and the mother of them has a telepathic conversation with him. This conversation reveals the flashback of Zalen’s creation and upbringing and sends him back to his home planet looking for answers. Zalen grew up completely alone, learning and training and turning his entire being into a weapon, and once he was old enough to leave, he went out in search of answers: What is his purpose? Who created him? Where are they? Back on his home planet, Zalen finds it being destroyed by mechanical lifeforms. In a rage he destroys them. The comic ends with him and his crew relaxing on a beach before answering a job to hunt down a dangerous fugitive.

The story is very straightforward, but that isn’t a bad thing. It establishes the character of Zalen and delves into his backstory a little bit while also developing his motives. His philosophy, “what kills must die,” is also interesting because it’s kind of misleading. Zalen isn’t just a simple bounty hunter going after criminals who hurt people, even if that seems to be his next adventure. He’s a planetary defender who protects worlds from being torn apart for selfish reasons, like pirates harvesting the materials. It’s a refreshing take that I personally haven’t seen done before. Overall, I like Zalen as a character and I’m interested to see what he does next, and what answers he finds to the questions in his life.

Zalen also has a supporting crew helping him on his travels: Tala, Bong, the Jammas, and S’olos. Tala seems to be his logistics advisor who relays information to Zalen and the rest of the crew. Bong seems to be the engineer character. The Jammas (there are a lot of them) are the ones who actually own the ship and operate it. S’olos plots the courses through space for the ship to travel. The supporting cast is diverse, and the comic does a decent job of hinting at their pasts with Zalen, at least sometimes. Zalen’s connections with Tala and Bong aren’t very developed, so that’s one thing I’ll be looking for in future issues. I really like Zalen’s relationship with the Jammas because the way he remembers their names and returns their mannerisms indicates that he does care about them. I’m also interested in learning more about S’olos because this navigator is a massive aquatic whale-frog creature who’s apparently the last of his kind.

My absolute favorite part of Zalen is the art. The art is fantastic and probably my favorite in all of the Rippaverse comics. Since Zalen is about a spacefaring warrior, the character and creature designs can be really out there and creative. I love the different alien designs, from the main cast to the antagonists to the ambient creatures. The action is also very explosive and polished. Zalen is definitely my favorite looking Rippaverse comic so far.

I do have a few complaints about Zalen. The first is directly related to the narrative. After Zalen destroys the robot ship that is partially responsible for ravaging his home planet, there’s an awkward cut to him and his crew relaxing on the beach. One panel he’s in space, the next he’s on the beach, and this cut happens on the same page. Previous cuts at least indicate that time, and travel, has occurred, but the transition seems really jarring and unexplained. Then the beach scene quickly cuts to Zalen and his crew back on the ship answering a transmission about their next job. There’s also a panel here where Zalen and Tala are whispering that feels out of place and doesn’t make logical sense in the flow of the conversation. This complaint might be remedied or explained a little with the next one. When Zalen was releasing, I remember receiving an email from Rippaverse apologizing for an oversight in quality control with the printing and how a section got misprinted and messed up. Was the part that got messed up the part I had an issue with? Maybe. There are a few areas where a panel seems to be awkwardly placed near the spine of the book, so it gets printed on both pages instead of just the right or left. It’s usually not a big deal, but it is something I noticed. I’m not sure where the printing error actually occurred in Zalen, but knowing it was there made me hyperaware of the layout of the comic. Some of the layout is rather unconventional and it does work as it sprawls across pages, but I can’t deny that it could be a little hard to follow at times. Finally, I have one last major complaint, and it has less to do with the comic and more with how Rippaverse handled the printing mess-up. They gave everyone a 60% discount code that could be used on all purchases, which was super awesome, and I applaud them for it because it legitimately saved me like $100+ in an order I placed. The discount was great, and I totally appreciate their transparency with when they mess up and how they try to make it up to the community. However, they did not reprint any of the limited covers with the correct printing. They did fix the printing, but the only version with the updates is the mass print cover. I get that the limited covers were, well, limited and not going to get reprinted, but I personally think that messing up the print could allow for a re-print. Maybe that’s just me though, but I did want to voice my frustrations.

SPOILERS END

Overall, I did enjoy Zalen: What Kills Must Die. It’s a change of pace, and setting, for Rippaverse Comics, and I think that it works. The characters are cool and interesting, and I’m excited to learn more about them and see where they go from here. The space setting is intriguing, and I absolutely love the alien designs and artwork. While I do have a few complaints here and there, only one moment of jarring pacing really stands out as a slight against the comic itself. If you’re a fan of comics, especially Rippaverse Comics, you’ll enjoy Zalen. It feels familiar yet fresh while retaining the signature Rippaverse zeal to put out interesting, quality products that earn your support.