Mass Effect: Redemption #4

“Words aren’t the only things that speak the truth.” — Liara

“Redemption, Part 4”

Liara T’Soni’s search for Commander Shepard’s abductors comes to an end, but what other shocking discoveries will she make when she finds them?

With the final issue of the story arc, Feron’s triple-game is finally known. Throughout the series, every Feron scene I wrote had to be approached with both an understanding of what his true loyalties were — plus the image he was intending to portray to Liara at the time. Fortunately, I’d had some experience with this kind of masquerade over in Knights of the Old Republic. We also got to use a tried-and-true comic-book device, the origin story, in spelling out his motivations.

By the time Mass Effect Redemption #4 came out, I was hip-deep in writing the novel Star Wars: Knight Errant, so it was actually a longer-than-usual stretch before I sat down to read the issue! The gap between the last issue of Redemption and the launch of the Knight Errant comics series was also the longest stretch for me without new comics on the stands since 2004, after Iron Man ended. Again, the novel was the main reason.

There would be a fun follow-on to this series: the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC game for Mass Effect is a direct sequel.

“I’ve got another friend to help now — and I’ve made a new enemy.” — Liara

Issue #4 begins with one of our longest combat sequences, a showcase for Omar Francia‘s art.

Are flash drives are still the key means of sneaking around bunches of information in the future? Hard to say, but that one Feron has doesn’t look USB-compatible!

We slipped another fun reference to Shepard’s pronoun dilemma in Tazzik’s description of the remains. “Hard to tell if it’s even a man or woman…!”

And not to offend the readers, but this was the first comic book to include my photo — as the “Horsepower” column in the back had a brief profile of me. These things happen!