Orbiter: 03/19/16

Orbiter by Warren Ellis is a graphic novel in an alternate timeline where the space shuttle program ended after one of the ships disappeared during a mission. Now ten years later (and it's always ten years, isn't it?) the ship has returned to land at Kennedy. Except the economy and government have tanked and refugees are now living on the tarmac and no one expects the strip to be used for its original purpose.

In any story where a space vessel goes missing and then reappears, or a person disappears and reappears years alter un-aged, it's bound to be extraterrestrial interference.

That's the case here too. The sole surviving astronaut has an extraordinary tale of finding himself landing on Mars and then being taken to places he could never imagine traveling to in his lifetime or in something as primitive as a space shuttle.

Although this is a much darker piece and is aimed at an adult readership, it gave me the same emotion response as Disney's Flight of the Navigator. Both have a decade gap due to relativistic space travel, NASA (or what's left of it) suddenly interested in the returned's story, and a complete disconnect between the returned and the rest of the world

Four stars

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