What’s up everyone! Welcome to Beyond The Panel. Coming at you today with talk about Nebula #1! This one I found myself surprised by, because I never really foresaw myself getting this anxious to pick up a miniseries for Nebula of all cosmic characters. Maybe it was because she has been through a lot in the past couple of years, or maybe it is because I wanted to see if the cover image meant that they were trying to adapt the movie version into the books. Either way, I wanted to know where they plan to take this character who is one of the most dangerous forces born of circumstance.

From the start of this first issue they wasted no time showing us the version of Nebula that we were dealing with. She may look like the movie version, but this is all the Nebula we know best. The Nebula who is always up to no good and looking for the next best thing to give her the edge over her enemies, or targets. This was good for a reader like me as well since I did not read the most recent Infinity War story. That makes this a very welcoming book to anyone who simply has interest in Nebula for the fact that there is little to no requirement to actually be up to date with everything that she has been up to. All that matters is the course of action she has taken in this debut issue which will influence everything she gets herself into for the next four issues to follow.

Finding out what this top-secret device was, and how this helps with her big plans for her future was well-thought. Nebula could have gone after a great many things, but it made sense that she would have her eyes set on something which actually could be looked at as an upgrade considering a majority of her composition is tech.

Now if you’re someone like me who jumped into this first issue with expectations for what we are going to get out of this story? You might as well throw that out of the window. I actually enjoyed the fact that by the end of this first issue this story turned into something else entirely. You see a book like this focused on Nebula, and you instantly think that the aim is to simply embrace everything badass about her. You know, do the usual thing where the character is almost untouchable. And yet that is not what this book offers. Through the events of Nebula #1 we are given a Nebula who is challenged in a way that she hasn’t been in quite some time, and unfortunately this time around she legitimately did it to herself.

This is the first time I have been exposed to the artwork of Claire Roe, and I was impressed by what we got from her. From the flip of the first page I felt at ease with this story because she had an excellent handle on the way she drew these characters. The characters were expressive, they were posed naturally, they were proportionate, not to mention her pencils were overall clean. All of this made the story very easy to follow. And to take a step further she proved to know just what she was doing when taking things from Nebula’s perspective, literally. With that said, I was familiar with the work of Mike Spicer on colors. This was a name I was happy to read. I believe that he is one of the very best to get for a book that you want to stun readers with visually. His palette of colors is brilliant for the depth that he is able to create from them. Great with textures, explosiveness, and colors which simply breathe life into the characters and settings. Beyond this, the lettering was notable as well. Good font, shape for the boxes, and color for distinction.

No ambition comes without a cost! Through this debut issue for Nebula, this creative team showed us exactly what they meant by Nebula’s goal ending up costing her more than she’s willing to pay. This is the same Nebula we’ve all come to admire. She’s a badass, she’s as dangerous as ever, and she will resort to any tactic that will get her what she wants. Don’t let the new look fool you!