The Expanse by Corinna Bechko and Alejandro Aragon

As part of my holding pattern waiting for Book Nine of The Expanse to come out, I picked up this comic miniseries, which ties into the tv show, taking place between seasons 4 and 5 (and thus between books four and five, though there are some pretty big divergences from the books' canon; I haven't got this far in the show). There wasn't a digital collection at my library, but they did have the four individual issues on Hoopla. Weirdly, it seems to have no title beyond "The Expanse," which isn't confusing at all.

Most of the main cast put in only cameo appearances; the focus here is on Chrisjen Avasarala on the moon and Bobbie Draper on Mars working two different ends of a conspiracy. Some of what happens here sets up what, in the books at least, are the events of Nemesis Games, with Bobbie finding that someone is draining away Martian resources and personnel. The big difference is that here, Avasarala has somehow lost political power and ended up in an administrative position on the Moon (something with no parallel in the books), so she's being very mopey. I have to say, I found the idea of a mopey Avasarala unconvincing; I don't doubt that she could experience depression, but I do doubt that this is the form it would take.

from The Expanse #3

It's a pretty simple, quick-reading thriller on the whole, though some elements I struggled to understand. (Why does Avasarala get in that airlock? How could the bad guys have anticipated that plan at all?) Neat, I guess, as another peak into a familiar world, but it felt pretty inconsequential; Avasarala and Bobbie don't really learn anything, and we don't really learn anything about them. Alejandro Aragon's art looks nice, but I sometimes didn't realize that the character we were looking at was Bobbie until a couple panels had gone by. It was always clear who Avasarala was meant to be, but the likeness was occasionally pretty wonky. So, I would say, "get it free on Hoopla" is pretty much the exact quality level this was at. Thankfully, as I write this in December 2021, Leviathan Falls just showed up and I have already begun to read it.

The Expanse was originally published in four issues (Dec. 2020–Mar. 2021). The story was written by Corinna Bechko, illustrated by Alejandro Aragon, colored by Francesco Sagala, lettered by Ed Dukeshire, and edited by Jonathan Manning.

I read an Expanse story every eighty-ish days. Next up in sequence: Leviathan Falls