Review: We Only Find Them When They're Dead
2367. The edge of the galaxy. The human race is desperate for resources, having long since depleted the asteroids and biological reserves within their reach. But all is not lost. Some years earlier salvation arrived in the form of the 'gods' ... gigantic humanoid beings, each one large enough to generate its own gravitational field, all of them mysterious and beautiful, all of them dressed in exotic garments, all of them inspiring awe and wonder... and all of them dead.
It's a godsend but demand is increasing and threatens to outstrip supply. There is always the temptation to go to the black market, which is why escort ships police every autopsy, quickly cracking down on anyone who moves out of their prescribed flight pattern.
Georges Malik is captain of a four-man ship like his mother before him. He is the last of his family after his brother and parents were killed in a tragic accident thirty years earlier. Escort officer Richter has a distinct mistrust of him, for reasons that he will not reveal to his crew. It is a hard life, taxes reducing their profits and nothing but the prospect of more of the same in their foreseeable future.
Malik has a plan - a reckless one - to take his ship out of the galaxy and into the void where, he believes, they will find what no-one else has ever seen before: a live god.
The complications of human nature are never far away, of course. The decision does not sit easily with Malik's coroner Ella, who is the sister of his engineer Jason, who is also his lover... but the lure of the possibility of a better life is hard to resist. Escort officer Richter's deeply personal grudge against Malik is not likely to allow any such escape, however; she is just waiting for any excuse to come down on him hard because of their painful history.
We Only Find Them When They're Dead by writer Al Ewing and artist Simone Di Meo is a startling piece; the gruesome subject matter contrasted with beautiful images and a complex emotional drama that adds the all-too-human elements to a story set on the very edge of the imagination. The premise is outlandish but the shortcomings of the players are very realistic. They descend upon the dead gods like insects and, in many cases, their morality is on a comparable level.
Nevertheless, this is a dazzling offering, every panel suffused with glowing light. The spacecraft designs are inspired and their movement is artfully illustrated with bright contrails that look like the tracks of moving lights. This is most clearly seen with the escort ship, a graceful scarlet missile driven by a woman consumed with fury and the thirst for vengeance. In pursuit of justice she leaves lines like curved bleeding scars across the sky.
The tone alternates between reflective and dramatic, hooking the reader even as it keeps you off balance, not sure what is coming next.
A desperate race into the outer darkness... Suicide? Or a chance for revelation?
It's in the hands of the gods.
Zak Webber
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