Humans are attempting to find a new home to relocate to in future space. On board, a scientist and her crew have trained and entrusted her support animals decked out in mech suits to help explore potential locations for humanity. After the ship crashes on a mysterious planet, the animals must find their owners, not letting petty grievances split them apart. Man’s Best #1 by Pornsak Pichetshote and Jesse Lonergan hits your emotions hard as a group of pets go on an intergalactic and emotional grand adventure. 

Described as Homeward Bound in space, Man’s Best #1 follows lovable pets Athos, Porthos, and Lovey, that you are efficiently emotionally invested in and attached to. Pichetshote portrays the animals as being clever but still prone to bickering among each other like siblings. More impressively, he nails the emotional intelligence that the pets have toward their owner, Doc, such as in the case of Athos snuggling closely with her following a bad day. Pichetshote is interested in exploring the best of humanity from the point of view of pets. Considering how science fiction explores human truths and ideals in a fictional setting, positioning the focus on animals cements this idea because they see the best in us humans. After all, we see as much of ourselves in our pets as much as they do to us.

Pichetshote also crafts an impressive setting for the series. More specifically, intelligent dialogue and similar details hint at what happened to Earth and why humanity had to leave and move to the stars. A darker reflection of our potential future, fighting, pollution, environmental issues, and corporations have doomed the planet and forced the crew to explore space to find a possible new home. Even with space travel, he still grounds the reader, including real-world problems that we are currently experiencing and battling in the present day. Small touches on that and even the technology make the world feel expansive and authentic.

Longergan’s art and colors balance the sci-fi setting with the cute and adorable pet protagonists. Athos, Porthos, and Lovey are all drawn as extremely cute and hit your emotional core whenever you see them. You feel an instant attachment to them both in and out of their mech suits. The mech suit designs are top-notch and reflect their personalities, such as Athos piloting a four-legged cat-themed design or Lovey having a rocket attached to him with guns. Also, the robot and alien world’s design is superb and highly unique. Longergan’s usage of pinks and blues provides the comic with a softer color palette that reflects the pets’ emotions and points of view and the science-fiction nature of the story. Jeff Powell’s lettering helps pack the emotional punch of the story as well.

Man’s Best #1 provides an emotionally engaging and heart-tugging science fiction story. Staring three sweet and delightful pets, Pichetshote and Lonergan, chart an exciting new story in the debut issue. Maybe we don’t need to travel to the stars to find humanity; we only need to look at our pets.

Story: Pornsak Pichetshote Art/Colors: Jesse Lonergan Letterer: Jeff Powell
Story: 9.3 Art: 9.3 Overall: 9.3 Recommendation: Read

BOOM! Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle