Titan by François Vigneault

MNGR João da Silva is assigned to the Homestead mining colony on Titan after their previous MNGR becomes suddenly ill, and the station returns another unprofitable quarter.  What he finds is a station on the brink of exploding, with tensions high between the Terran management and their Titan workers. The Titans were genetically modified long ago to be stronger and larger than Terrans, able to withstand the harsh conditions on Titan.  João decides that what the workers need are trackers so that he can analyze immense amounts of data to figure out where the inefficiencies lie.  The Union workers, through their liaison Titan Phoebe Mackintosh, disagree with João’s assessment whole-heartedly, and instead assert that the station needs upgraded machinery.  Phoebe and João try to work together to save Homestead, while others decide a violent coup will fix the problems of the mining colony, and finally bring liberation to all Titan. 

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The story starts off rather slow as João explores Homestead and tries to figure out where the loss in production comes from, but the second half is action-packed and sees the many story threads come together.  The crux of Titan is about questioning capitalism, especially the fidelity to profits over living beings.  Vigneault uses intense violence to show the outcome of those priorities.  The overall story focuses mostly on violence and showing the errors of the way of capitalism, at the detriment of some plot development.  Things go from bad to worse extremely quickly, but we spend an entire chapter with Phoebe and João that seemed entirely unnecessary.  The ending wraps everything up in a nice bow with a major time jump, and I would have rather liked to see how Phoebe ended up the way she did, rather than being told what happened afterwards.

The art style is a little cartoony, and the coloring is all shades of pink, black, and white.  This creates the feel of an alien atmosphere to emphasize that Titan is not Earth.

There is quite a bit of violence, as well as an entire chapter dedicated to an intimate scene between Phoebe and João.  The Titans are portrayed as vulgar and less sophisticated than the Terrans, which means they cuss a lot. This title would be best suited for adult audiences.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Adult

This review was made possible with a digital reader copy from the publisher through Net Galley.

Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: November 10, 2020
ISBN: 9781620107799 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: Adult, Graphic Fiction, Science Fiction, Oni Press