YAOI REVIEW: Starfighter ~ HamletMachine
Starfighter Chapter 1 ~ Hamlet Machine
47 Story Pages/10 Illustration Pages
Self-published & webcomic
Quick Synopsis:
Space can be a cold place and on a space station full of men (and seemingly no women) what’s a boy to do? Fuck his teammate, that’s what. Ok, so maybe I’m simplifying the story just a bit but to be honest, we’re still early on in a story that is staying tight lipped on what is to come. There’s an unknown enemy to fight, teammates to despise and underhanded scheming that makes me desperate for more.
Plot:
The story revolves around navigators and fighters with navigators being portrayed as intelligent but weak and fighters as gruff and more apt to do their thinking with their fists. Neither likes the other yet they must work together to fight the enemy. You see, in each ship there’s a navigator to navigate during the fight and the fighter who fires on the enemy. One can’t work without the other.
I love that Starfighter takes place in space with this fiery division between the fighters and the navigators. In order to do their job they must work together but it is clear each thinks they are better than the other. The only time they seem to come together is when fighting the enemy and in this volume, we have yet to find out who that is and just why they are fighting.
After reading chapter 1, I found myself wondering if the navigators and fighters are breed for their roles. The similar look they have to each of their own kind as well as similar personality traits makes me wonder if they are some sort of lab creation or if on their world they are each a specific race or ethnicity. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
Character Development:
Our two main characters have the task names of Cain and Abel. Cain is a fighter and Abel is his navigator so if their designations don’t tip you off to the impending conflict, their names sure do! To put this in yaoi terms, Cain is definitely the sadistic seme whereas Abel is the timid yet sometimes feisty uke. I think I can best sum this up with my favorite quote from the book:
“Oh Abel… I’m going to fuck you.”
And fuck him he does.
Sexual Content:
Speaking of fucking, let’s get into the sexual content of this one since that is a huge part of this chapter. Is there sex? Yes. Is there lots of sex? Absolutely. In fact there are 16 pages of sex out of a 47 page story and it IS explicit. Boy parts look like boy parts, no ghost penis here. It’s in the sexual content that I feel Cain absolutely shines. He’s sadistic for sure yet here and there he shows just a hint of sweetness to Abel; although you could compare this sweetness to a stranger offering a piece of candy to a child so take that for what it is. If you’re looking for sweet, loving sex scenes, this isn’t going to be for you.
Readability:
This is originally written in English so there was no translation necessary. The speech bubbles are well placed and when it changes to inner dialogue, it is obvious. Speaking of, that is one thing I really loved in this story, Abel’s inner dialogue. It would be so easy to dismiss him as a weak uke type but his inner dialogue makes him so much more than that. I believe him as a character and I find him to be just as interesting as the sadistic Cain. I usually don’t find myself that interested in the uke characters but I like Abel and I find myself worrying about him. But let me say this, don’t write off our little Abel as naïve. I think he’s more aware than he lets on.
Illustrations:
As far as the illustrations themselves, there are quite a few things I really like. First off, HamletMachine has a very unique style in my opinion. It’s a nice combination between a more realistic style of drawing and the manga style and it works. You can see more of the realism when you see the naked butts. No I’m not kidding and I’m not embarrassed to say it!
Where HM really shines is in the background detail. More often than not it seems the background detail is overlooked or is considered to be a minor part of the story. With Starfighter taking place in space, there are great details in the starships, the fighting and the space station itself. I must make one other observation that I’ve never made before… I love the font! It works!
Starfighter is not black and white. There are hints of color with the black, gray and white theme of the story. I think if this was full vibrant color, it wouldn’t work. The story is dark and somewhat sinister so the hints of color really bring attention to what was intended by the artist.
Another element of the illustrations I enjoyed was the expressions of both Cain and Abel. The look on Abel’s face when he first see’s Cain’s dick is priceless and the final shot of Cain is so damn sinister, you realize then there is so much more yet to come (in more ways than one I bet!).
Now here’s the REAL reason you want to go and pick yourself up a copy, the illustrations in the back of the book. Holy hot! There are 10 color illustrations after the story and damn, some of them are seriously dirty. As far as I know, these are not anywhere online so if you want to see them, you need to buy a copy. A physical copy of Starfighter goes for $14 on the Starfighter website. The cover is glossy and the paper quality is much better than what we typically get. I’m guessing this is because of the color and it not being a black and white comic with the usual cheap paper.
Final Thoughts:
I think it’s pretty obvious I love this one. The story is fabulous yet totally mysterious, the sex is scorching and the illustration quality is pretty damn good and getting more and more refined. What’s even better? You can read it for free (and legally) right online! If you love it like I do, you’ll want to buy a copy. It’s so worth having in your hands and being able to flip through, especially for the hot and oh so dirty pics in the back!
Plot: A (I’m holding off on an A+ until I see more)
Character Development: A
Sexual Content: A+
Readability: A+
Illustrations: A+
Overall: A+
Read for free at www.starfightercomic.com
~Jennifer LeBlanc
13 Comments
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I just discovered this comic last week and have already gone back to re-read it about 5 times. I completely agree with this review and am glad to see that you liked it as much as I did. I was just on the website an hour or so ago debating on whether or not I should buy a hard copy and I think you’ve convinced me!
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Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 1:11 PM
I’ve been reading it from close to the start and nearly wet myself when I saw a physical copy was being sold. XD Go get it!!!
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shanchan Reply:
June 13th, 2010 at 1:54 PM
Done
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I liked the overall design of the book. It made me feel nostalgic for days when I collected doujinshi. It’s in plastic now, sitting in my ‘secret stash of love’ box.
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I treated myself to a copy this past Christmas and LOVE it. HamletMachine is a creator after my own twisted heart. The hot incidental art is definitely worth the very reasonable price!
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[...] YAOI REVIEW: Starfighter ~ HamletMachine [...]
I started my doujinshi/GLOBL collection by Starfighter and it’s a really precious book, I’m glad I got it on pre-order. ^^
Of course I’m dying for the second one.
It’s one pretty Review, Jennifer, you made really nice observations about the universe I did notice but could never put in words as well as you do.
[Reply to this comment]
Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 7:09 PM
Aww! Thank you! I was worried it was too long and no one would read it. XD
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[...] and steamy mansex, go check out Starfighter. I think you’ll love it. And be sure to blame The Yaoi Review if you get hooked–that’s what I [...]
this comic called my attention because the characters were named Cain and Abel. I bought a copy of the book as soon as it was announced and I can say I never do that, not even with manga. I love it and I think your review was fantastic
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Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
December 5th, 2010 at 11:39 PM
Thank you and sorry for the late response! Sometimes I miss a comment here and there. Glad you liked it! ^_^
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*LOL* No I have an agonising wait for my book to arrive so I can see those “seriously dirty” book illustration.
I agree about the art being something gorgeously unique as to the level of background detail, and perfect balance between stylised & realistic.
Some panels, I found myself spending so much time ogling the art that I lost the story thread, and had to flip back a page to reread the section!
[Reply to this comment]
Jennifer LeBlanc AKA Asami's Girl Reply:
December 5th, 2010 at 11:41 PM
Had you been at YaoiCon you could have met her and had her sign your copy like I did. She’s adorable. ^_^ The pervy ones always are.
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