Review: Orisha Exos
Beni is top of her class, that class being young people training to pilot Orisha - giant military space robots defending the Earth from her enemies.
This is Afrofuturism at its finest, though, so Earth is now called Yoruba (!) and the Moon is Mawu, names from African culture.
Giving Earth's Moon an actual name (which it badly needs, being not the only moon in the universe) is something I heartily approve of.
"Earth" is a pretty dull name too (as noted in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)...
In Orisha Exos by SoVereign Comics (who also brought us Ayanmo Stigmata), written by Tyrone Jackson with art by Demone Amerson, the world - once dying from environmental neglect - was abandoned by the wealthy elite who flew off into space in search of new planets to colonise. The common herd was left to fend for themselves which, after long hardship, they did. Many years later the survivors prospered and began to colonise the solar system.
Excellent! But then the descendants of the old Earth elite returned, in force, to attack. Luckily the people of Yoruba were able to defend themselves, in no small part due to the discovery of a giant robot on Mawu, the prototype for the current army of Orisha.
This is a slick blend of African and Asian traditions, giant robot warriors with human pilots nowadays being as much a mainstay of science fiction as ray guns and rocket ships. The robots are sleek, glossy and dynamic and come in a variety of designs, as dazzling as Optimus Prime in his prime.
Beni is the daughter of two legendary pilots and feels the great pressure of expectation. She and her best friend Kela engage in some healthy (but nevertheless savage) rivalry with their classmates, dreaming of the day they get to fly and fight for the freedom of their world.
Visually, Orisha Exos is a satisfying sugar rush with exotic scenery, spectacular space vistas and no shortage of action. The space battles are a joyful collision of traditional starship skirmishes with kaiju/Shogun Warriors style mêlées... Beni''s giant space robot has a giant space sword.
And why not!?
Orisha Exos on Amazon
Zak Webber
Twitter - @sfcomicartist / Instagram - @sfcomicartist
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