Published by: Image/Top Cow | Writer: Matt Hawkins | Artist: Jung-Geun Yoon | Publication Date: March 5, 2014

Tales of Honor #1 is the first comic book set in the Honorverse, which represents the stories told in the science-fiction novels by David Weber. Honor Harrington, pictured, is an officer in Her Majesty's Royal Manticoran Navy, the space navy of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. The series is full of fast-paced space battle with an authentic feel.

When Image announced the Tales of Honor comic, I jumped at the chance to finally start reading the Honorverse novels. Here's a tough female officer with a cool spaceship in sweet space combat. What's not to love? The comic looked awesome, and I burned through the first 3 novels in a few weeks. I wanted to be able to review an epic sci-fi comic book like this one properly.

There are 13 books in the Honor Harrington series; the first is called On Basilisk Station (which you can read for free on Amazon's Kindle software). This comic attempts to start with that novel, however jumps back and forth in the Honorverse continuity starting somewhere around book 6. Frankly starting so late in the series and jumping backwards feels like a gigantic spoiler.

The first issue covers a lot of ground, even explaining the nature of space combat and ship defenses. It accomplishes an impressive info-dump about the series within the pages of the first issue, ranging from Honor's (somewhat trite) backstory to her taking command of H.M.S. Fearless – a light interstellar warship. Commander Harrington soon finds herself assigned to the Basilisk system, where a sinister plot has been hatched by a competing space empire who wants the system for their own.

Critically there is a lot to like in this first issue. The spaceships look great, the artwork is suitable, and it is a military sci-fi comic worth reading. There is one key problem, though – Nimitz.

Nimitz is Honor Harrington's treecat – basically a six-legged alien bobcat. He's with Honor almost all of the time; he even rids on her shoulder. Nimitz is depicted on the cover of many of the Honorverse books. He's not a pretty fluffy cat, but you could see him as an animal you'd want to hang out with. But not in this comic, no. Nimitz is drawn like some horrifying offspring occurring when a Turian (think Garrus in Mass Effect) mates with a Jabberwocky. Nimitz is horrifying and just drawn wrong. Even if David Weber himself told me he liked the comic portrayal, I'd still think that Nimitz was terribly adapted. It isn't just that he looks wrong – he's actually horrifying to look at and it disrupts the entire comic. I hope the creative team for Tales of Honor makes changes to Nimitz for future issues.

Aside from the flaws with Nimitz, other aspects of the story are quite good. H.M.S Fearless, Honor's ship, looks both true to the novel, sleek and deadly. Seeing it transition from hyperspace to normal space looks fantastic, and this is where the artwork shines.

I want Honor Harrington to succeed in comics. The story would fit well as a brainy space military sci-fi comic, something you won't find anywhere else in comics today. I don't think this first issue is enough to make that happen, but I recognize it as exposition necessary to the long-term success of the story.

I give issue 1 of Tales of Honor 3 out of 5 stars.

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