Saren’s backstory understandably takes a backseat, with his point-of-view not being touched on until the fourth issue’s omniscient narration starts setting up why Desolas isn’t in the games. It’s the first of several gut punches, that’ll leave you with a true understanding of why Harper was so ruthless in later life.Īdmittedly, this point is better understood by those who’ve experienced other Mass Effect stories, which explain at length how Reaper technology exploits your own desires to eventually take control of you, but it still illustrates a great point: how susceptible would someone be to aggressive ideas if they hadn’t been conditioned to believe in them? Would Desolas have so easily become a Reaper puppet if he’d been raised to be less resentful of the galaxy’s newcomers? Ben dies protecting Jack, though Jack is subtly transformed by the energy of the relic, his eyes changed into his older self’s trademark synthetic irises. Harper and his two allies, Eva Coré and Ben Hislop, are an affable lead trio, and it’s a lot of fun seeing them use a hostage to force a platoon to surrender, without firing a single shot.Īs it turns out, the hostage is General Desolas, Saren’s brother, and his troops were uncovering a Reaper artifact, which has already zombified some turians. Though an origin story, “Evolution” works well as a twisted, standalone King Solomon’s Mines-type adventure, with Miller and Walters’s customary opening narration explaining the disastrous first meeting between humans and turians, and humanity’s use of mercenaries as the conflict wound down. Now, for the first time anywhere, the origin of the Illusive Man is revealed, in a story exclusive to this graphic novel! The Illusive Man sits at the center of many of the galaxy’s greatest mysteries and is a key figure of Mass Effect 2 and beyond.

Written by John Jackson Miller, Mac Walters

Mass effect redemption summary