Review: Port Of Earth
"We always knew we weren't alone. We looked to the stars with hope, with fear, with anticipation, wondering when we met them, would they come in peace, or in violence. Then one day it happened. They made contact. They came not in peace, or in violence... but in business. With a proposition."
The Consortium makes a deal with Earth: let them build an interplanetary port off the coast of San Francisco for space travellers to rest and refuel. In return, they give us new technology: the ability to use water as a source of energy. The deal is agreed upon and brokered by a group of powerful Earth corporations, who profit greatly from the exchange.
Alien visitors are not to leave the port. Interaction with the human population is forbidden. A Naval blockade is set up to enforce this directive.
However, some aliens break through the blockade and attack humans. The Earth Security Agency is created to tackle any such incidents. ESA agents are charged with protecting both humans and aliens; those beings who refuse to stay in the port are deemed as criminals by the Consortium but they still have rights. Lethal force is only to be used as a last resort...
Port Of Earth by writer Zack Kaplan and artist Andrea Mutti explores an idea that few science fiction narratives consider. We are familiar with the concept of aliens coming in peace, like the serene, dispassionate Vulcans making First Contact in Star Trek, welcoming humans onto the galactic stage to participate as equals in life beyond our world. Many an optimist will tell you that a species that has existed long enough to master interstellar travel must be highly evolved socially, morally, even spiritually. Hippy-trippy UFO cultists yearn to be abducted by our extraterrestrial benefactors, sometimes even concluding that Jesus was an ambassador from the stars, or that the gods of ancient myth were our exotic advocates, guiding our development. Like the Galactic Milieu of Julian May's novels, of the Culture of Iain Banks, the aliens are much better than us and just want to gently elevate us to their level.
We are, of course, even more familiar with the more pessimistic viewpoint, that a more advanced civilisation will descend upon us in much the same way as has happened countless times in our own history, for exploitation, culminating in invasion and violence. In War of The Worlds, V, Independence Day and the like, Earth is all but helpless against the superior technology of the monsters from space.
Here is a fascinating third possibility, that the ETs only want to open trade. They are not a Federation, not a galactic version of the UN; they have no grand social, political or ethical agenda. They are also not an evil empire come to enslave us or steal our planet; they do not need slaves and all they want from Earth is some of its water, of which we have plenty, and its strategic location as a way station for travellers.
Alien visitors are not to leave the port. Interaction with the human population is forbidden. A Naval blockade is set up to enforce this directive.
However, some aliens break through the blockade and attack humans. The Earth Security Agency is created to tackle any such incidents. ESA agents are charged with protecting both humans and aliens; those beings who refuse to stay in the port are deemed as criminals by the Consortium but they still have rights. Lethal force is only to be used as a last resort...
Port Of Earth by writer Zack Kaplan and artist Andrea Mutti explores an idea that few science fiction narratives consider. We are familiar with the concept of aliens coming in peace, like the serene, dispassionate Vulcans making First Contact in Star Trek, welcoming humans onto the galactic stage to participate as equals in life beyond our world. Many an optimist will tell you that a species that has existed long enough to master interstellar travel must be highly evolved socially, morally, even spiritually. Hippy-trippy UFO cultists yearn to be abducted by our extraterrestrial benefactors, sometimes even concluding that Jesus was an ambassador from the stars, or that the gods of ancient myth were our exotic advocates, guiding our development. Like the Galactic Milieu of Julian May's novels, of the Culture of Iain Banks, the aliens are much better than us and just want to gently elevate us to their level.
We are, of course, even more familiar with the more pessimistic viewpoint, that a more advanced civilisation will descend upon us in much the same way as has happened countless times in our own history, for exploitation, culminating in invasion and violence. In War of The Worlds, V, Independence Day and the like, Earth is all but helpless against the superior technology of the monsters from space.
Here is a fascinating third possibility, that the ETs only want to open trade. They are not a Federation, not a galactic version of the UN; they have no grand social, political or ethical agenda. They are also not an evil empire come to enslave us or steal our planet; they do not need slaves and all they want from Earth is some of its water, of which we have plenty, and its strategic location as a way station for travellers.
It's a good deal... Right?
Of course, the reality is much less smooth and slick. First was the economic upheaval caused by the sudden introduction of water energy technology: many smaller companies going out of business, much unemployment and animosity. Then the alien incursions; seemingly random acts of violence by beings whose motivations can only be guessed at.
The port also creates opportunities, however: many are employed by the ESA, such as agents Eric and Mac. When they investigate a disturbance caused by what appears to be an alien terrorist, however, it raises some awkward questions for their organisation and for the Consortium.
The art is gritty but tight, with some pleasing alien designs: not all the interlopers are humanoid, some are downright monstrous (such as the homicidal pink octopus) and end notes detail the races and spacecraft featured in the story. Still, much remains unknown...
Is there some grand evil scheme going on behind the scenes? Have they actually come to eat or brains? Or is big business - and, on a galactic scale, business doesn't get any bigger than this - itself, essentially, evil enough?
Sometimes the invaders come with bigger, better weapons. Sometimes all they need is a smile, maybe a few Bibles or trinkets, and before you know it they have taken the ground from beneath your feet. Putting profits before people - from any planet - may not be a uniquely human vice.
Has humanity just sold out the whole Earth?
PORT OF EARTH from Top Cow
PORT OF EARTH from Top Cow
Zak Webber
Twitter - @sfcomicartist / Instagram - @sfcomicartist
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