Captain Malik and the crew of the Vihaan II harvest the remains of gods. They are one ship out of hundreds that do so. Like the gold rushes of the 19th century, gods are a resource crucial to humanity’s survival, growing increasingly rarer as competition between ships grows more intense. We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #1 sees Malik and the Vihhaan II looking to get out of the system by being the first humans to see a living god.

Al Ewing has written a frontier story disguised as a sci-fi adventure story set in deep space. Like people during frontier gold rushes, crews of ships flock en mass to a god corpse and salvage resources until there’s nothing of value left. Then, they leave the remains behind, only to sell it for mere pennies and find another god corpse. Or, they risk their lives to try to sell their goods on the black market. It’s a vicious, perpetuative cycle. Ewing does a brilliant job of setting the stage for the series, explaining why the crew of Vihaan II decide to risk their lives to break out of the system and making you empathize with them.

Simone Di Meo’s art makes you feel like We Only Find Them When They’re Dead actually takes place far in the future, in deep space. No ship looks the same, similar to a fleet of Rebel/Resistance fighter ships in Star Wars. The clothing worn by the characters look like slim, futuristic astronaut space suits, and Captain Malik’s clothing has a particular steampunk pirate flair that doesn’t feel out of place. Mariasara Miotti’s colors are perfect for this story set on the edge of deep space. It feels like Miotti looked at photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and used those as inspiration. The colors of the god look similar to the Orion Nebula, and even the interior of some of the ships look like they took a visual cue from the Crab Nebula.

We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #1 is about a crew that decides to boldly go where no one has gone before out of economic desperation. It’s like a Star Trek adventure with a cyberpunk dystopian flair. At the very least, go pick this up for the art alone.

We Only Find Them When They're Dead #1

9.8

Script

10.0/10

Art

9.0/10

Colors

10.0/10

Concept

10.0/10

Deep Space Adventure

10.0/10

Credits

Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Simone Di Meo
Colorist: Mariasara Miotti
Letterer: AndWorld Design
Cover Artists: Matías Bergara, Simone Di Meo, Jenny Frison, Tony Infanti, Christian Ward