J.C. Vaughn

Stargate Atlantis: Volume Two collects the stories “Hearts & Minds,” written by Mark L. Haynes & J.C. Vaughn with art by Greg LaRocque, and “Singularity,” written by Haynes & Vaughn with art by Gorden Purcell & LaRocque. “Heats & Minds” picks up after the events of “Gateways,” with the Ancient Janus working to undermine the Atlantis Expedition’s efforts to form alliances with other humans in the Pegasus Galaxy. Janus is freely giving away Lantean technology to rebuild human societies ravaged by the Wraith, though he does so in order to alienate the Atlantis Expedition from its allies. Meanwhile, a technical glitch leaves Chuck and Walter Harriman stranded on a planet without a DHD. Worse, they’re assumed dead and may soon make that a reality as the local moon quickly approaches the planet. In “Gateways,” the team recovers Replicator Weir from space in order to get her help in reaching Janus. They must work fast, as Janus and his dimension-hopping aliens have weaponized the Stargates, altering the code that makes them work in the process and putting everyone in the Pegasus Galaxy in danger. Harriman and Chuck find a handheld DHD and manage to dial the Stargate hub the team discovered in Volume One, narrowly escaping the destruction of the planet where they were stranded. The story concludes in such a way that it wraps up some of the loose threads left after the end of Stargate Atlantis season five.

LaRocque’s art is serviceable, with many characters’ appearances looking similar enough to the series actors. At times, limbs appear too small while the linework is rough, though he did improve since his work on “Back to Pegasus.” The art LaRocque worked on with Purcell is better, but not as good as Watson’s art in “Gateways.” The art is, overall, an improvement from that which appeared in Dynamite Comics’ Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran series, but not as good as the art from the original Avatar Press Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis comics. Most importantly, however, Haynes & Vaughn’s stories feel like a natural continuation of the television series, including references back to previous episodes and building on what came before. They offer great stories for the Stargate Atlantis fan!… (más)

Stargate Atlantis: Volume One collects the stories “Back to Pegasus,” written by Mark L. Haynes & J.C. Vaughn with art by Greg LaRocque, and “Gateways,” written by Haynes & Vaughn with art by Scottie Watson. “Back to Pegasus” picks up where the series finale ended, with Atlantis in San Francisco Bay and the Atlantis Expedition wondering if they’ll return the city to the Pegasus Galaxy. Meanwhile, Teyla and Ronon have returned and are in the Pegasus Alpha Site when the unknown aliens from an alternate universe (seen in “The Daedalus Variations”) begin attacking. The return of Janus, the Ancient, while Col. Sheppard’s team looks for new ZPMs leads to a cascading power buildup, forcing Atlantis to leave Earth rather than risk exploding on the surface. In “Gateways,” Atlantis returns to the Pegasus Galaxy where the team investigates Janus, who has grown unstable as a result of his stasis and his efforts to remove parts of his memory in order to protect the knowledge from falling into the wrong hands. The unknown aliens continue to attack throughout the galaxy, but they’re honing in on Janus. Sheppard, Rodney, Ronon, Teyla, and Daniel Jackson manage to find a working replacement crystal for the Atlantis gate and a shield that can stop the dimension-hopping aliens, but not before the aliens take Shen, of the IOC, Todd the Wraith, and Janus to the Genii homeworld.

LaRocque’s art is serviceable, with many character’s appearances looking similar enough to the series actors. At times, limbs appear too small while the linework is rough. His depiction of Daniel Jackson, however, looks nothing like actor Michael Shanks, while he avoiding having to draw Richard Dean Anderson by explaining that a Furling device made him invisible. Watson’s art in “Gateways” is a marked improvement, with characters more closely resembling their actors and the lines looking cleaner. The art is, overall, an improvement from that which appeared in Dynamite Comics’ Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran series, but not as good as the art from the original Avatar Press Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis comics. Perhaps most importantly, Haynes & Vaughn’s stories feel like a natural continuation of the television series, including references back to previous episodes and building on what came before. They offer great stories for the Stargate Atlantis fan!… (más)

I'm not a comic book/graphic novel fan... not really. I read them mostly when one of my favorite authors dabbles in the medium, or when their stories are adapted by others, as in this particular instance.

That being said, I liked "Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now", but I did not love it. It contains comic adaptations of six of Cory Doctorow's prose short stories: "Anda's Game"; "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth"; "Craphound"; "Nimby and the D-Hoppers"; "I, Robot"; and "After the Siege". I'd previously read all of these stories, either in Cory's short story collections or online and they are all wonderful examples of Cory's work. And the artwork here is beautiful. But it seems to me that the pacing of these comics is much too fast, you get no sense of the passage of time, and they are extremely over-condensed, the scenes are more like bullet points in an outline, there is no time for the story to breathe, and most of the setting, tone and flavor of the story are missing.

My opinion, "After the Siege" is the best adapted story in this collection. The story of a girl who fights to save her family in a war-torn, zombie-ridden, alternate-universe Russia, where the only man who can help her is the "Wizard", an outsider, a traitor, whose "magic" comes from 3D printers.… (más)