The universe surrounding these monsters, heroes and villains is certainly growing with each outing but does this latest bit really need to exist?  Read on to find out.

The official description from Titan Books:

Following the events of the smash video game hit Dead Space 2, we follow Earthgov Sergeant John Carver whose wife and son are attacked by fanatics trying to liberate the Marker site where she works. Racing to solve the clues his wife left behind, Carver teams up with Ellie Langford, survivor of an earlier Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, and EarthGov Captain Robert Norton. Together they unlock deep secrets about the Markers in an epic adventure that will determine the fate of mankind.

To read our review for the first graphic novel, Dead Space, click here.

To read our review for the second graphic novel, Dead Space: Salvage, click here.

If you haven’t played any of the Dead Space video games, but you’ve been following the graphic novels trust me when I say we’re only getting a sliver of what looks to be an exceptional experience.  By this third release I can honestly say though I feel a lot more comfortable with the concepts being used but I wish I had played the video game to fully grasp the current situation.

The overall packaging here is pretty standard as we have the comic book itself fully collected and ready to go with little else available.  We have an additional art gallery that gives a taste into the concept portion of these proceeding which yields some minor insights into the artistic prowess of the creative process.  To be honest after completing the journey I found myself wishing for an introduction or epilogue that consisted of either an interview with the people behind this or at the very least notes on how they came up with this bit of the overall saga.

The narrative itself follows John Carver, during an extremely trying time in his life.  A marker has been hit, an EMP has gone off and his family is stranded in the epicenter.  To make matters worse there are enemy combatants at work here along with the now roaming necromorphs.  It’s a complicated playing field and trust me when I say the author behind this wastes absolutely no time hitting the proverbial ground hard and running within the confines of this elaborate but simple set-up.

The script by Ian Edginton is top-notch.  I honestly have very little to complain about except that there were a few times where the text did come off a tad bit too clunky but overall these instances were few and far between.  The story itself is so well handled and expertly constructed that the audience will instantly find itself thrust into a world of heightened emotions and complicated scenarios as the man behind this throws literally everything he can think of at our protagonist.  Trust me, when I say, you will feel for his struggles from start to finish as properly used words yield a tactical precision that simply pulls at the right emotional strings at the correct moments.

Christopher Shy handles that art and similar to his work in Dead Space: Salvage, he easily illustrates a beautifully rendered vision that’s sure to captivate and motivate the audience to read through this adventure in one solid sitting.  The backgrounds are intentionally vague as a moody but near photo-realistic interpretation of the franchise take center stage in this disarmingly simple but nonetheless compelling tale.  I have to say above all else I enjoyed viewing his rendition of the armor associated with this franchise, even more so that his capable realizations of the monsters therein.

Dead Space: Liberation turned out to be my favorite extension to this franchise so far.  From the unique art on display to the precise dialogue delivered it absolutely showed that this creative team certainly came out to play.  I’ll be honest, I’m not ready to say that this romp is a perfect success as there are some shortcomings here and there but the overall feeling I was left with when I closed that final page is that right now in its current form this tale quite easily comes highly recommended.

4.5/5