From the popular sci-fi novels by David Weber comes the revamped comic, Tales of Honor. Fans of Star Trek might enjoy the adventures of captain Honor Harrington, who kind of reminds me of a female captain Kirk. Tales of Honor follows the story of how Harrington became captain of an intergalactic vessel and how she ended up in a situation that may cost her and her crew their lives. So this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion; I wasn’t a fan of this issue. For one thing, it was too much information crammed into one issue. It felt like I was painfully being dragged through it. I get that sometimes the first issue can be a little rocky but it was just boring.
[TW: Sexual Violence] There’s one scene that particularly urked me of a young Harrington being assaulted in the shower which brings me to my little side rant for the week. I’m discovering it hard to find stories where a female character isn’t in some way sexually assaulted. I’ve written about this before but it just seems too common for writers to use sexual violence as filler. This is the second comic I’ve read THIS WEEK that fell to the same uncreative content. It’s becoming really disheartening that whenever I come across a female lead she is subjected to sexual violence. It shouldn’t be like finding a needle in the hay stack for a decently written female story. Do you even realize how problematic that is or how this could be triggering to your audience? Just throwing in sexual assault here and there for shits and giggles? It does nothing for your story. You’re doing disservice to your characters; Harrington deserves a better backstory. You’re dehumanizing women and normalizing assault on female bodies. Oh and on top of that you turn her predator into the victim when she fights back.
This comic has so much hype around it; you could have used it to inspire and do something great with it. Matt Hawkins, you are in a position where you could have made a story that young girls could feel safe escaping in.
I had really high hopes for Tales of Honor; I mean over all it wasn’t bad. There was a strong female which I am always excited to see but there was not one single person of color in this story. Despite liking the general storyline I can’t give Tales of Honor more than 2 out of 5.
Alright, so let me say what I did like. Harrington’s companion is a freakin treecat! I loved that idea and it gives personality to Harrington. Jung-Guen Yoon’s art of the galaxy captured the immensity and vastness of space through the usages of colors that illuminated the unknown universe. So I dig the galaxy scenes and costumes but I will say that at times it looked a little too digital. For the most part that can be overlooked though in compared to the rest of the amazing artwork featured.
Score: 2/5
Writer: Matt Hawkins Artist: Jueng-Guen Yoon Publisher: Image/Top Cow Price: $2.99 Release Date: 3/4/14