Soleil has just published Le Test, the first volume of Fédération, adaptation by Ange of his own novel, La Jawe du dragon, published in 1996 under the pseudonym G. Elton Ranne, a classic science fiction story but not devoid of interest.
The Earth, 2040. Humans coexist with representatives of three alien species that dominate the world economically and belong to an obscure Federation of inaccessible planets. In a context of social-racial tensions, the police must investigate the murder of an alien, a Chivas with questionable activities. To complicate matters, a serial killer has been raging for a few weeks in New York. Inspector Alex Green, just disembarked from the plane, takes up his new position and must conduct the investigation in a hostile climate, confronted, moreover, with the animosity of his new colleagues.
The first board sets a classic New York city setting, polar atmosphere: a crime scene, a crowd, cops, flashing lights, yellow taxis and onlookers. Then, we discover in the last box the drawing traced in white chalk on the pavement of the shape of an alien corpse with four arms.
What pleases above all the sight of this first page is its brightness. The scene may happen at night, but this does not prevent bright colors, usually "prohibited" in contemporary comics, under the pretext that it "stings the eyes". So let's immediately pay tribute to the excellent work of the colorist, Elvire de Cock, who proves that you can do beautiful things with digital colorizations, when you really want to bother and without it being cheesy or childish. His work is just from start to finish and we do very well with the usual pink, gray, purple, brown and goose poose green. It's fun!
The plot is therefore launched from the presentation of the characters, we do not waste time and, as a result, the space and time made available by the forty-eight boards are fully used, and we can spend on the few moments of filling (the serial killer). The scenario is therefore rather well paced, the cutting is generally clear and effective. On the other hand, we can regret a certain lack of originality in the subject and dialogues sometimes too stereotyped. It is true that we often have the feeling of having already seen this story somewhere. As in addition, the characters are very classic, not to say banal concerning some, the enthusiasm goes down slightly. But the plot, although classic, remains solid and we really want to know the continuation and outcome of this story, whose purpose is also to tell us about the current world, the social and political considerations of 2018 or the confrontation between communities: we also make a rather clumsy analogy between alien colonizers of the future and European colonizers of the past (Sarah who says that the colonized-plundered are Racist towards colonizer-exploiters is strange to say the least).
As for the drawing, Janolle does a job to match the scenario: a clear line very readable, precise sets, a very well characterized universe. One cannot avoid thinking of Blade Runner (the 1982 film) at the sight of flying cars and creepy atmospheres at ground level, but the reader can also have fun finding other influences and references throughout the pages, which fortunately never smell of fan service, deplorable trend of contemporary (science-)fiction.
The Test is a good introduction, promising for the continuation of Federation. We simply hope that the following volumes will gain in personality or originality in order to stand out from the plethoric SF production in which it is always very difficult to make its place.
