A review by inamerata
Mass Effect: The Complete Comics, by Mac Walters, Jeremy Barlow, John Jackson Miller
adventurous
fast-paced
2.5
In general, the art ranges from "it's alright" to laughably bad. Women are twisted into vacuum-sealed pretzels for constant and remarkably un-sexy T&A. Men are more likely to be drawn as people, although sometimes the artists draw rippling barrels instead. Expressions and poses, especially dramatic ones, tend to look silly and lopsided, rather than emotional or dynamic. (One of my favorites is a turian caught in a explosion, drawn so wibbly-wobbly he appears to be made of jelly. No notes.)
Characters of color are horribly whitewashed. Even in their darkest panels, dark-skinned characters like David Anderson, Jacob Taylor, and Maya Brooks/Rasa are pale and ashy. More than once, Jacob (who is Black) and Miranda (who is white) have the same skin tone. In almost all her appearances, Maya is lightly tan or straight-up white. Some artists draw their features better, but I cannot overstate the amount of whitewashing in these comics.
Assume these problems are present to some degree unless noted.
Redemption: An okay but somewhat forgettable story. I was a little surprised how much a potential romantic subplot between Liara and Feron was set up here.
Evolution: Incoherent garbage that doesn't work with anything else in the series. Awful.
Invasion: A little stupid/hamfisted at times, but Aria mostly gets to stay competent, so yay.
Homeworld/Vega: Bittersweet, but I liked seeing a glimpse of life on Earth.
Homeworld/Tali: Another bittersweet, interesting story. Tali's such a skinny noodle here it is distracting, but man, she really goes through it before you meet her.
Homeworld/Garrus: His dad was right. Wow, he was such a dirty cop! Their conversation at the end really gets me, though.
Homeworld/Liara: The art is a lot better here and the story was fairly interesting.
Incursion: This is actually decent. The art is better and it's a clean little story snippet.
Inquisition: A sad, messy story. A little odd, but I mean, we knew it would be.
Conviction: Honestly kind of silly, but my favorite part is the idea this is how Shepard and Vega meet because that is incredibly funny.
He Who Laughs Last: This one is just fun. Great job, Joker. :)
Blasto: Eternity is Forever: How is this more fun than half the "real" comics.
Foundation/1: This would have been okay if it wasn't so whitewashed.
Foundation/2: Art and whitewashing is still very bad, but yay Wrex.
Foundation/3: The story works well, a bit blunt and we gotta have some no homo, but still. The expressions are particularly bad here. Poor Ash.
Foundation/4: Art is distracting here, and sometimes the intensity felt a bit silly rather than dramatic, but the story is solid and bittersweet. The last conversation between Kaidan and his dad is so good.
Foundation/5 & 6: An okay story but the level of whitewashing here is ridiculous.
Foundation/7: Jack should have killed Leng. At one point, she literally makes a D:> face, which is very funny.
Foundation/8: I can't care about Rasa comics because they are all just so weird and whitewashed it's stupid.
Foundation/9: One of the best Foundation stories. Solid art and story that shows Mordin's backstory, seeds internal and external conflicts, and sets up Maelon's journey, as well.
Foundation/10: Brutal when not horny.
Foundation/11: The narration is very Emperor's New Groove but it's alright.
Foundation/12: The art is a little funky at times but this would have been a good story if not for the random rape. Also, why did that guy straight-up look like Palpatine.
Foundation/13: This could have been cool but instead it's a terrible mess. Rasa is so white you literally can't tell her from Miranda. Their showdown could have been interesting, with their backstories and current level of favor with TIM affecting how they regard Cerberus' support/control, but it just flounders at the end. Rasa's given a confirmed slavery backstory, which is apparently why she projects onto clones and mechs, and makes her ~crazy. Also, Shepard's clone is shown to be explicitly white. (The Blasto virus was very funny, though.)
Discovery: Wow, the art is just infinitely better here, it's lovely. A fun, textured style. The story relies on some weird, contradictory world-building, though, and then it wouldn't be Bioware without killing off half a gay couple and making the one GNC woman a hyper-aggressive brute. (Also Jien is once again a non-character.)
Characters of color are horribly whitewashed. Even in their darkest panels, dark-skinned characters like David Anderson, Jacob Taylor, and Maya Brooks/Rasa are pale and ashy. More than once, Jacob (who is Black) and Miranda (who is white) have the same skin tone. In almost all her appearances, Maya is lightly tan or straight-up white. Some artists draw their features better, but I cannot overstate the amount of whitewashing in these comics.
Assume these problems are present to some degree unless noted.
Redemption: An okay but somewhat forgettable story. I was a little surprised how much a potential romantic subplot between Liara and Feron was set up here.
Evolution: Incoherent garbage that doesn't work with anything else in the series. Awful.
Invasion: A little stupid/hamfisted at times, but Aria mostly gets to stay competent, so yay.
Homeworld/Vega: Bittersweet, but I liked seeing a glimpse of life on Earth.
Homeworld/Tali: Another bittersweet, interesting story. Tali's such a skinny noodle here it is distracting, but man, she really goes through it before you meet her.
Homeworld/Garrus: His dad was right. Wow, he was such a dirty cop! Their conversation at the end really gets me, though.
Homeworld/Liara: The art is a lot better here and the story was fairly interesting.
Spoiler
How'd TIM hack that line, though? Who left their line unsecured!Incursion: This is actually decent. The art is better and it's a clean little story snippet.
Inquisition: A sad, messy story. A little odd, but I mean, we knew it would be.
Conviction: Honestly kind of silly, but my favorite part is the idea this is how Shepard and Vega meet because that is incredibly funny.
He Who Laughs Last: This one is just fun. Great job, Joker. :)
Blasto: Eternity is Forever: How is this more fun than half the "real" comics.
Foundation/1: This would have been okay if it wasn't so whitewashed.
Foundation/2: Art and whitewashing is still very bad, but yay Wrex.
Foundation/3: The story works well, a bit blunt and we gotta have some no homo, but still. The expressions are particularly bad here. Poor Ash.
Foundation/4: Art is distracting here, and sometimes the intensity felt a bit silly rather than dramatic, but the story is solid and bittersweet. The last conversation between Kaidan and his dad is so good.
Foundation/5 & 6: An okay story but the level of whitewashing here is ridiculous.
Foundation/7: Jack should have killed Leng. At one point, she literally makes a D:> face, which is very funny.
Foundation/8: I can't care about Rasa comics because they are all just so weird and whitewashed it's stupid.
Foundation/9: One of the best Foundation stories. Solid art and story that shows Mordin's backstory, seeds internal and external conflicts, and sets up Maelon's journey, as well.
Foundation/10: Brutal when not horny.
Foundation/11: The narration is very Emperor's New Groove but it's alright.
Foundation/12: The art is a little funky at times but this would have been a good story if not for the random rape. Also, why did that guy straight-up look like Palpatine.
Foundation/13: This could have been cool but instead it's a terrible mess. Rasa is so white you literally can't tell her from Miranda. Their showdown could have been interesting, with their backstories and current level of favor with TIM affecting how they regard Cerberus' support/control, but it just flounders at the end. Rasa's given a confirmed slavery backstory, which is apparently why she projects onto clones and mechs, and makes her ~crazy. Also, Shepard's clone is shown to be explicitly white. (The Blasto virus was very funny, though.)
Discovery: Wow, the art is just infinitely better here, it's lovely. A fun, textured style. The story relies on some weird, contradictory world-building, though, and then it wouldn't be Bioware without killing off half a gay couple and making the one GNC woman a hyper-aggressive brute. (Also Jien is once again a non-character.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Xenophobia, Slavery, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Genocide, and Racism
Minor: Drug abuse, Police brutality, Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault
I have no idea how to rank some of these because it's a comic so what's shown is sometimes explicit (like ripping tech out of a brainstem) but proportionally brief in the book.