In Venna’s Planet Book One: Broken Promise we followed the story of a beautiful woman who yearned to settle on the new world over which futile war is being fought. Upset by Venna’s decision to join the planetary teams, her superior officer — oft referred to as the Countess and obsessed with her former protégé, ordered her abduction. Once captured, Venna suffered a process intended to rob her of her very humanity, and everything she thought she knew was turned inside-out and upside-down.
Scorching Darkness picks up right where we left off in Broken Promise, with Venna and company approaching the dwelling place of a planetary tribe known as the Trakuviads. Our heroine and those that travel with her know not what ordeals by earth, fire, water and monsters await them in these caves, but surely know that outside of them, an even more deadly threat looms in the form of the indomitable countess and her cohorts.
Another masterpiece from the unique hand of Robin Evans, Venna’s Planet: Scorching Darkness takes for its inspiration a heady mix of pre-war movie serials, classic newspaper comic strips and vintage science fiction pulp cover art. Glamour is, of course, favoured over realism of any kind; once again Venna spends much of the story in various revealing outfits… although the wearing of these is more often than not outside her control, and one should not consider her to be in any way immodest. Despite facing so many trials and tribulations, Venna — the ultimate female role model fighting for control of her own destiny — always comes up smiling, ready for whatever her creator will throw at her next.
Scorching Darkness will no doubt receive the same high praise as Venna’s first outing, and is sure to be appreciated by both casual and dedicated fans of the sci-fi graphic novel, particularly those who have enjoyed works from artists such as Makoto Yukimura and Alan Moore.
