As I’ve undoubtedly mentioned before, I’m a big fan of the science fiction genre. Webcomics such as Schlock Mercenary and Freefall are among my favorite reads, and some of the comics I’ve read the longest. Sadly, there are only a handful of science fiction webcomics, and many of these comics struggle with effective storytelling and other pitfalls that is inherent in both prose and webcomic science fiction stories. In this, Holly Laing and Drew Dailey’s Terra is no exception, and it has taken a bit for Terra to find its wings.

Much like many other science fiction stories created in the wake of the pseudo-science fiction juggernaut Star Wars, Terra utilizes the concept of a rapacious humanity as the primary antagonist of the tale. Opposed to this are a handful of noble renegades (both human and alien) who struggle to overcome the system and defeat the corrupt powerbase behind the unending wars that humanity finds itself embroiled in. Naturally enough, the rank-and-file humans fighting the ongoing wars against the aliens are unaware of the corruption of their leaders… or continue to fight because while their leaders may be corrupt, they themselves will follow orders like good little automatons. Or at least, until their corrupt leaders abandon them to their fate.

Fortunately, Terra avoids a death-spiral into overused tropes in that the alien race that humanity is fighting, the Azatoth, are also a bit of bastards. While the Azatoth race are described as a “proud warrior race,” they are not “noble savages” being unfairly persecuted by humanity; they utilize assassins, slavers, and worse in the ongoing war with humanity, and this activity has boiled over into attacks on other alien races as well as humanity. (Naturally enough, humans were responsible for the start of the war between the Azatoth and Earth, when human extremists committed an act of terrorism against the Azatoth embassy. But when you consider what humans do to each other, I could easily see this happening.)

While the first dozen pages of Terra suffer from a flaw many stories go through (telling the story instead of showing it), once the initial information dump ends, the story starts to pick up. This is also the case with the comic’s art, which started out as fairly average and has grown to be among the better artwork among the comics I read for both character design and background details. But while Terra has taken a while for its story to take form (and even after nearly 100 pages, I’m not exactly sure of where the story is going), there is potential here that makes the comic well worth reading, and a definite addition to any fan of the science fiction genre.