Jules Verne’s Lighthouse

In case you’re wondering, no, Jules Verne did not write a story about an interstellar outpost responsible for helping ships navigate through wormholes at the far-flung reaches of space.  His “Lighthouse” was a much more grounded tale about the workers of a lighthouse at the southern end of Argentina who have to deal with a surprise pirate attack.  Co-writers Brian Haberlin and David Hine kept that part as a routine day at The Lighthouse is disrupted when a ship begging for an emergency landing turns out to be crewed by pirates from the planet of Libertaria.  They’re here not for riches, but for some cargo that could make a big difference towards their real goals.  Standing in their way are Vasquez and her robot partner Moses.  Vasquez is a former soldier who has been dealing with a bad case of PTSD during her time in the military.  The thing is that the pirates may be more familiar with the circumstances which gave her that impairment than she knows.

Squint closely and you can probably guess how Haberlin and Hine have updated Verne’s original story from its original parts.  Updating aside, “The Lighthouse” is still a perfectly serviceable sci-fi adventure that gets the job done without breaking any new ground.  While the writers nod towards dealing with weightier topics like PTSD and war crimes, they’re never explored in any depth.  There’s also the fact that while the story unfolds in a manner that’s pleasant enough, the villains are more than a little dumb in how they like to toy with Vasquez rather than killing her outright.  Haberlin’s art also suffers by having a computer-generated look to it throughout the volume, giving what should be a unique sci-fi setting a cheap appearance.  The end result is the graphic novel equivalent of a direct to video/cable/streaming movie that you put on because the box art and copy makes it sound interesting, only to find that it’s not completely terrible and maybe a little more competent than you were expecting.