Celestial Alliance: Judgment Day

(After Hours, 2002)
™ and © 2002, Darren Sanchez

Something is just missing in Darren Sanchez’ Celestial Alliance. The writing is competent enough, as is the art by Daniel Leister and Jon St. Pierre. It just seems to rehash any number of science-fiction plot devices.

An Air Force pilot crashes at sea and is saved by a team of assorted aliens (as was Christopher Pike). It turns out that the aliens are there to judge whether Earth should be allowed to continue to exist (as in The Eternals). The aliens are all different, and considerable thought went into their design, but we don’t learn as much about them or see them in action as much as we’d like.

There are a few careless errors. The title of the story is “Judgement Day.” Once you’re putting it in bold letters on the title page, a spell check seems in order. (The American spelling is “Judgment Day.”) Similarly, the “epilogue” ends with “to be continued.” It’s not an epilogue, then, is it?

This series ties in with the forthcoming J.A.A.T., previewed in this issue. This lays the groundwork for an After Hours “Sanchezverse.” There is potential here, but we need unexpected plot twists and to see the aliens strut their stuff.

— Jack Abramowitz

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Notes

Writer

Artist

#1

September, 2002
Cover Price: $2.99
1 copy available for $3.98

Darren Sanchez

Dan Leister, Joe St. Pierre, Dennis Calero, Lee Stacy