Tag Archives: a haunting on mars

A Haunting on Mars #1 delivers a Resident Evil sci-fi vibe

Posted on by
A Haunting on Mars #1

Mars is a wasteland: A dead colony, founded by a dead billionaire, holding darkness and secrets within. Secrets which Echo Team are sent to uncover. A hacker. A psionic. An empath. A soldier. And their corpo loyalist leader. They’ve crashed far from the LZ and their sanity’s already unraveling… A Haunting on Mars #1 delivers an opening that feels a bit like a sci-fi spin on Resident Evil.

Written by Zach Chapman, A Haunting on Mars #1 is an interesting first issue. A rag tag, mysterious group, is brought together on a mission for an equally mysterious and ominous corporation. Their mission? To retrieve something from Mars. But, each member has only a sliver of what’s going on and of course the mission doesn’t go right from the start.

Throw in some techno/industrial music, and A Haunting on Mars #1 feels a bit like the first Resident Evil film… but on Mars. Each has a team who you’re not sure who you can trust. There’s a setting that’s abandoned for unknown reasons. There’s even a clearly evil corporation involved. Finally, throw in some mutated dogs and you can see the roots of the comic. And that’s not a bad thing. That film ruled!

Chapman throws a lot into the issue with teases of a war, team members with psionic, empath, and tech abilities, and then there’s that ending. It all comes together in a rock and roll sort of way and comes off as pop/sci-fi/horror fun. Sit back and enjoy the ride hoping for surprising twists and shocks.

The art by Ruairi Coleman is good. With color by Steve Canon and Maja Opacic and lettering by Chapman the comic plays off of its desolation well. Mars feels empty and ominous, a getting vibe to get while reading the comic. There’s also a smart decision to make the comic futuristic without going over the top. Space suits are rather simple which prevents them from being a distraction and making the reader guess a bit about how it all works. This is a case where less is more. The comic focuses on the character and the trust and lack of it between them.

A Haunting on Mars #1 is fun pulp sci-fi. The characters each have their role and it hits familiar notes, but overall, it’s a fun read that you can just sit back and enjoy. Now, to find that Resident Evil soundtrack to listen to while reading the rest.

Story: Zach Chapman Art: Ruairi Coleman
Color: Steve Canon and Maja Opacic Letterer: Zach Chapman
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read

Graphic Policy was provided with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

Posted on by
Faceless and the Family #1

Wednesdays (and Tuesdays) are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in

Each week our contributors choose what they can’t wait to read this week or just sounds interesting. In other words, this is what we’re looking forward to and think you should be taking a look at!

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this week.

Almost Dead #1 (Ablaze) – After having an accident on her way home to visit her family, Sara Walker awakens to find that the world has changed. Now she must travel up the Eastern Seaboard, using suppressed survival skills she learned as a child, in hopes of reuniting with her loved ones in the midst of a viral pandemic that has turned humans into monsters.

Blood Commandment #1 (Image Comics) – Living an isolated life in a shadowed valley surrounded by mountains and a thick forest, a father and son are terrorized by a dangerous supernatural presence. Only the father’s dark secrets can save them…or damn their souls for all eternity!

Count Dante #4 (Scout Comics) – The series has done an amazing job of balancing fact and fiction in the world of martial arts and based on a true story.

Dying Days #1 (Red 5 Comics) – It’s the ultimate race against time! When “The Aging” starts, people are aging at a rapid rate. Can the cause and solution be found, before it’s too late?

Faceless and the Family #1 (Oni Press) – Matt Lesniewski’s art alone will suck you in.

A Haunting on Mars #1 (Scout Comics) – Mars is a wasteland: A dead colony, founded by a dead billionaire, holding darkness and secrets within. Secrets which Echo Team are sent to uncover. A hacker. A psionic. An empath. A soldier. And their corpo loyalist leader. They’ve crashed far from the LZ and their sanity’s already unraveling!

It’s Jeff: The Jeff-Verse #1 (Marvel) – The first issue was really cute and a lot of fun and we’re hoping for more of that.

Ranger Academy #2 (BOOM! Studios) – The first issue was a lot of fun with a familiar concept of an outsider arriving at a school. In this case, it’s one dealing with the Power Rangers.

Red Light #1 (AWA Studios) – Get ready for a red-hot futuristic erotic thriller that sits at the intersection of sex and tech!

Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Special (DC Comics) – It should be fun to revisit this classic period with the creators behind it.

Savage Red Sonja #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) – Tasked with retrieving a long-hidden gem from a crumbled, ancient kingdom, the She-Devil With a Sword is traveling alone through a dangerous wasteland when fate intervenes, and her solo adventure is sidetracked by a wayward prince and his bride as they try desperately to escape from fearsome desert bandits – only to be attacked by a monstrous beast from beneath the sands!

Space Between #1 (BOOM! Studios) – Two individuals from two different social castes meet aboard an interstellar ark.

Spider-Boy #1 (Marvel) – We haven’t paid too much attention to the character, but we’re intrigued to see where the long game goes with him.

Stories of the Islands (Holiday House) – In Stories of the Islands, debut graphic novelist Clar Angkasa takes three folk tales from her childhood in Indonesia and gives them back to the girl characters, following their hopes, dreams, and journeys for independence from malevolent forces-both natural and unnatural.

Traveling to Mars #9 (Ablaze) – One of the best comics on the market right now.

Ultimate Universe #1 (Marvel) – While the recent limited series left us unimpressed, this first issue is actually solid and more of what we were looking for.

Unnatural Order #1 (Vault Comics) – After the fall of the Britons and the Roman invasion of Hibernia, the captive known only as the Druid is released, sending a darkness across the world…an age of horrors, of fire and entrails.

White Widow #1 (Marvel) – Yelena Belova gets the spotlight!

Earth’s Most Dangerous Hacker is Captured and Forced On A Suicide Mission into a Haunted House On Mars. A Haunting on Mars is coming soon!

Posted on by

A hot-headed hacker is forced onto a team of corpo scum tasked with retrieving a dangerous piece of tech from a haunted house. She must survive double-crossing teammates and the bizarre mysterious horrors within.

Mission at the Mansion:  High above the long dead Mars colony, atop Olympus Mons, looms Emmeric Deschutes’ mansion. Inside shadows twist, ancient automated defenses cycle, corpses rot and a priceless technology lays dormant, waiting for the corporate Echo Team to retrieve it.

An Unstable Team: The Deschutes corporation has assembled a team of experts to retrieve the tech–Cass is an anti-corporate terrorist hacker, forced on the mission against her will. Fozli is a junkie empath with a sixth sense that suffers PTSD from corpo wars. Paz is one of the most powerful psionics that’s ever lived, but her powers make her unstable. Ryker is a company man, in it for the paycheck, but quickly growing disillusioned with the Deschutes Corporation. Lastly, Morgan is their mission leader who knows more than he lets on. Together they combat the horrors on Mars while battling to keep their sanity.

A Cruel MacGuffin: The Core is a bottled singularity; the matrix in a box. Digital immortality. Inside it are the ghosts of the people who once lived on Mars. The Deschutes corporation’s secret plan is to retrieve the Core and place a price on afterlife. Little does the team know that the tech’s creator now resides inside the Core as a merciless, sadistic god a la I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.

The Hacker’s Choice: After escaping the haunted mansion, the Hacker must return the tech to the corporation in exchange for her freedom back on Earth, or destroy it, dooming herself, but ending the suffering of her teammates, and other souls stuck inside the Core.

A Haunting on Mars is written and lettered by Zach Chapman, art by Ruairi Coleman, and colors by Steve Canon and Maja Opacic.