“Joyride” #1 (of 4) (review)
Boom! Studios, April 2016
Writer: Jackson Lanzig and Collin Kelly
On the face of it, this title is an adolescent science fiction story, a heist, a youthful expression of defiance. It is almost shallow. But there are some shadows amidst the stardust.
A young girl named Uma convinces a boy named Dewydd to get her past the fascist gatekeepers manning a weapon on the moon which is aimed at the world. All citizens of the planet are in an Orwellian yoke where happiness and calm are mandated. Uma has made contact with an alien who has agreed to collect her and her friend from the dark side of the moon. The alien turns out to be a slaver. But she has subverted the alien’s enforcer, a black shapeshifting robot called D.Bot. The evil alien is jettisoned into space, presumably to his death, and Uma is left with the universe to explore and the means to do it. The three are actually a foursome, for there is also a fascist soldier, named Catrin, who has inadvertently joined the crew and is in the early stages of Stockholm Syndrome as a consequence of exposure to free-thinking.