Thursday, July 18, 2013

[Book] Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero

 
That right everyone, I got my hand on the Pacific Rim comic book. Took me a lot of hassle searching around Amazon.com and you wouldn't believe the price tag they put on this 112 pages of a comic book. $16!! I've paid less for a even thicker graphic novel (its a comic, really) before. Luckily, I found a really nice guy who resold it at cheaper price and still good as new. Good thing you could find the 'used' comic book along with the new ones. Gives you choices and whatnot.. but do be careful for a 'used and damaged' goods.

So what does this comic book (opss, its graphic novel) reveal about the Pacific Rim storyline? As per title, the novel starts with the background story, how the human-made titan robo the Jaeger came into being. Now, because of this book is newly released, so, some unwritten rule could be in effect somewhere along the line like, Spoiler Alert! probably maybe. So, yeah, spoiler alert and click read more to know more about the graphic novel.



The story comes in three view and perspective. There are 3 main character who retold their story during the earliest day of the Kaiju invasion. It start with the opening of the Kaiju War dubbed as K-Day, and go through the phase where humanity still struggling to comprehend what heck is going on, and finally the beginning right before the Pacific Rim movie. 

The first story is about Tendo Choi, a Chinese-Peruvian (don't ask me), work as a ferry crew. All of the sudden, a monster appeared and destroyed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Yup, that whats happened when you complained about your mundane daily work. He quickly realize that everyone in the city is screwed big time, with the bridge gone and all, and decided to ask his boss to use their ferry to help the people get to safety. In the mean time, he went to Chinatown to get his granpa and help him to get to safety. During their run back to the boat, the Kaiju (named Trespasser later) was going on rampage and was about to stomp on their little head. But the Air Force manage to quickly respond to the 'monster' situation, and held the Kaiju back. Too bad Tendo's grampa got a splash of the Kaiju's blood and his health suddenly deteriorate rapidly. Tendo managed to get back to the boat and en route to safety, but his granpa however doesn't look that well. He manage to left a final to Tendo, which later motivate Tendo to join the Pan Pacific Defense Corps Project Jaeger (he's the guy who becomes the statistic and analysis officer in the movie).


That right, the first part of the story shows that the first and only option against the Kaiju is nuclear. Which bring us to the second part. The second story revolves around  Dr. Jasper Schoenfeld, the guy who come up with the idea of Project Jaeger. He and a lot of other brightest minds in the world were brainstorming to look for another solution than nuclear. Due to the Kaiju persistence of attacking human cities or populated area, using a nuclear is pretty devastating to human livelihood as the Kaiju's attack. So he come up with the idea of using giant robot (while watching his son playing a toy) as a means of kinetic force as powerful as nuclear but without the fallout. With the help from Stacker Pentecost, he manage to secure finance and support from every part of the world. Thus come the first prototype, Mark 1 Jaeger named Brawler Yukon, and from here with trial and error, they created the Pons, neural interface that allow the Mind Meld tech, the Drift.

  
Yup, that is how the first Jaeger looks like. Doesn't matter if it looks ugly, what matter is that their win. Also, its a prototype and was not equipped with anything fancy like plasma blaster or chain sword at all. The Jaeger just pummel the Kaiju to death. Which is good thing, because one of the Jaeger main objective is to reduce damage to the city as much as possible.

Then, we up for the final. The final part is about Stacker Pentecost telling his story. He was not only helping Dr. Jasper as liaison officer from the military branch, but he also becomes one of the first Jaeger pilot (not the Brawler Yukon, his Jaeger was Coyote Tango). Another Jaeger was built in Japan and Stacker got in because he, how should I say this, helps Dr. Jasper to 'move the robot's finger' during the early development of Project Jaeger. Of course, like other Jaeger's pilot, he got a partner named Tamsin Sevier. His partner later was diagnosed with terminal cancer for obvious reason (they were piloting while exposed to the nuclear reactor in the Jaeger) and finally died which sadden Stacker greatly (Mind Meld really enforce the pilot's bond to a new level). The story goes with Stacker, without another compatible partner, becomes the commanding officer for the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, and help raise and train another pilots for the Project Jaeger. 

Well, the story ends around the time when the Project Jaeger was about to be scrapped. 
Its a good comic, I mean, graphic novel.. but yeah, because the movie ended with the dimensional portal collapse and the nuclear reactor exploded right on the Kaiju's Master face.. so I don't see how they would make a sequel. All they can do now is move the story backward, or here and there from 2013 to 2025 as per timeline.. I don't know. Its a shame really. Its have a very interesting stories and concept, but mostly the machines. Lol 


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