Starstruck #1 and Starstruck #2
You are warned, here be spoilers.
I had half a post written up, saying all these nice things about IDW comics – mentioning that I’ve adored such titles as Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, and their various Transformers titles, mentioning I’m delighted to be reading an IDW title again. Except, as it turns out, Starstruck isn’t exactly an IDW title.
Oh, it’s being reprinted by IDW, and I almost certainly wouldn’t have discovered it without IDW, and it is awesome and admirable of IDW to have made the move to acquire and republish this story. But as it turns out, this story was first serialized in Heavy Metal, back in 1982. Still, good on IDW for picking it up.
As it turns out, not only is this story originally from Heavy Metal, from the early ’80s, but it’s a prequel to a stage space opera from the ’70s. Shep’s comment at this point was “Shit gets deeper, don’t it?”
As to Starstruck itself: Oh my God, this thing is a riot. It presents itself as an anthology, except most of the stories are interlocked. It’s a pulpy space-opera about political war between two noble families, and it’s awesome. The drama of the first couple of chapters is driven by a gift, from one family to the other, of feminine sex-bot. Okay, vaguely amusing, but not terribly clever. What’s clever is its effect on the existing situation in the receiver’s household. See, his just-pubescent twin children don’t get along, and while his son is doing typical hormonal son things, his daughter is making scientific observations about her brother. Enter sex-bot, and observe while cackling.
I don’t have any deep observations about this story beyond my own giddy amusement. This series is a whole lot of fun so far, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.