Mass Effect: Redemption #3

“Wait until you see where we’re going. It’s not exactly an improvement…” — Feron

“Redemption, Part 3”

Liara T’Soni searches for clues that could save Commander Shepard, humanity’s greatest hero!

With the third issue of Redemption, the action moved away from Omega and into space, heading toward the Shadow Broker’s base on Alignon.

With this issue shipping more than a month after the release of Mass Effect 2, I expected many of the hardcore fans of the game would have completed their first runthroughs by its release. Still, we were able to show some real estate that hadn’t been seen while we continued to connect the dots, bringing Liara closer to those who stole Shepard’s body.

Alignon was already established as a world with a huge magnetic field, disrupting signals; a perfect location if you want to prevent unauthorized communications. It also allowed me to play on the more paranoid aspects of the Shadow Broker’s operation: with information so compartmentalized, a character like Feron could operate without the Broker’s underlings knowing he shouldn’t be there.

The Shadow Broker presented a visual challenge, because — as readers of the issue learn — it’s not clear who and what it is we’re looking at. My suggestion involved the “hall of mirrors” we see here — the semi-transparent screens all about — which would throw some interesting… well, shadows!

“I’m getting tired of having my friend described as merchandise.” — Liara

This was the first issue not to get a snap-reprinting, as retailers had had time to adjust orders after the first two issues sold out.

The name of Feron’s ship, the Plain Dealer, is one of my contributions to the series. Not to be confused with the old Cleveland newspaper!

I also got to make a contribution to the character roster with the guards Joppa and Delwian — about the closest approach to comic relief that we made in the series.