It seems like every time the military makes it to space, bad stuff happens. Science fiction is replete with post-space travel war fleets and interstellar colonization and aliens, and a lot of it is about subjugation and exploitation. Dark Horse has given readers a fanciful taste of that space-army gone wrong flavor with Strayed, from author Carlos Giffoni, artist Juan Doe, and letterer Matt Krotzer. A cat that can astrally project itself and track down new planets for military purposes, and the conflicting emotions that job brings about for the cat’s owner, are the clever premise that takes us across the galaxy and into the mind of a simple feline. Groovy alien landscapes, sinister military warlords, and a cat named Lou consistently come together to tell an outer space tale with plenty of heart, and some good moral underpinnings.
The short, Strayed end of the stick
At the end of the last issue, Lou and his owner, Kiara, were at the mercy of the government, who had plans to use them to find more worlds. One of the worlds they recently found has a unique energy source, a flower, and now their military leaders want them to find the origin of the flowers. This issue starts off with Lou, zooming through the cosmos, as Kiara monologues about how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and all that “I just didn’t know it would be THIS way” morality stuff. Then we learn that the government had plans to exploit the discovered planets regardless, which was totally obvious if you read this kind of sci-fi. Kiara realizes that she has been party to murders and theft and genocide and all the bad things, and feels really bad, which is understandable. Strayed is playing the accountability a bit on the nose here, but it’s a good message.
Are they gonna kill the cat?
Lou gets some scans done and they say “critical condition”! That’s terrible news, as any pet owner can attest, and it seems like Lou is going to kick the bucket by the end of this run, or else he’ll be healed by benevolent aliens in a deus-ex-machina kind of thing. As the most recently found planet is invaded, the officer in charge of Kiara and Lou speaks to the Premiere, a creepy boss dude in a skullcap thing that looks pretty intimidating. When your boss looks like an extra from Hellraiser, you should question the morals of what you’re told to do. The officer regretfully tells Kiara that they have to do more missions with Lou, and she is understandably protective, but to no avail. Lou prepares for another mission into metaphysical space.
Lou accomplishes his mission
In the final pages of this issue of Strayed, Lou cruises past dozens of alien worlds, looking for the flower-makers, and hears a voice calling to him as he sits at a nexus in time and space, and travels to where a tall, wispy, alien welcomes Lou to it’s home, where the flowers are vibrantly growing. Lou is going to have a good time, and hopefully things work out for Kiara now that she knows she’s working for the enemy. The Premiere has some nasty plans in store for the galaxy, so here’s looking forwards to some meddling by aliens and cats and cat-people.