Dark Horse Comics reviews 1/8/25 – Prodigy Slaves of Mars #5, Nemesis Rogues’ Gallery #5

Prodigy Slaves of Mars #5

After last issue’s crazy cliffhanger, writer Mark Millar wraps up the Slaves of Mars arc with an overall solid conclusion.

Edison and Elijah are on Mars, greeted by the architect of all of their problems — their father. Well, not exactly. Whitney Crane created a robot assistant, Kelvin, that gained sentience years ago. Hoping to communicate with the aliens that launched this experiment on Earth years ago, Kelvin engineered a series of challenges for Edison and Elijah to overcome to show Kelvin’s would-be alien warlords that Earth is on the verge of greatness. And with a partnership with the aliens, Kelvin hopes to tap into a new source of power and energy.

In previous Prodigy arcs there’s been some wild, James Bond style action sequences in the final few issues. That’s not really the case here as Millar takes a more cerebral approach with Edison and Elijah trying to outwit a computer. The main challenge for Millar is not nerfing the Crane brothers or Kelvin presenting a tough scenario where the Crane brothers do ultimately come out ahead, but in a way that isn’t as definitive as some of Edison’s earlier victories.

Stefano Landini also has a tough task in terms of finding dynamic ways to present a dialogue heavy final issue. Millar gave Landini some very fun scenarios to map out visually particularly the action packed third and fourth issue, but this was a far more subdued in a way that didn’t necessarily play to Landini’s best skills as an artist.

Colorist Michele Assarasakorn uses a rich color palette that finds a solid middle ground of not being too bright or dull to best capture the tone of the story. Prodigy can feature way out there ideas and concepts, but Millar establishes it in a real world setting and Assarasakorn keeps the tone in line with that mindset. Letterer Clem Robins packs a copious amount of dialogue smoothly without the text reading too overwhelming or cramped.

Slaves of Mars was an interesting departure from previous Prodigy arcs and while Edison doesn’t get the big win here, Millar sets up some very fun possibilities for future installments.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Dark Horse Comics

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