Robots Punching Monsters: The Comics of Pacific Rim

Tales from Year Zero, by Travis Beacham, Sean Chen, Yvel Guichet, Pericles Junior, and Chris Batista
This one-off graphic novel is set in the weeks before the first movie, and provides extra background for several of the main characters, using the framing device of Naomi Sokolov, a journalist interviewing various Pan Pacific Defense Corps staff.
The first story, “K-Day,” is especially good, dealing with Tendo and his heroic, desperate attempt to save a family member from San Francisco during the original attack. The art is fast and kinetic and the human cost is tangible. Plus the framing mechanism, especially the different answers everyone gives to “Why we fight?” is especially poignant.
The second story, “Turn of the Tide,” spotlights the lives of Jasper Schoenfeld and Caitlin Lightcap, two of the scientists at the heart of Jaeger technology. The story explores the horrible personal cost both bear and the odd way that buoys them up. The art swerves a bit toward cheesecake, but the surprising, and honest, emotional payload of the story makes up for it.
That isn’t as true of the final story, “The Bond.” It explores Stacker’s past and Raleigh and Yancy’s start at the PPDC and ties the entire book together with a pair of final moments that are genuine, poignant, and human. That element works brilliantly, but a subplot involving Raleigh and Yancy isn’t as strong—their brief, tedious fight over a girl is sexist and basic in a way none of the rest of the book or story is.
Quibbles aside, there’s a lot to enjoy here: writers Sean Chen and Yvel Guichet, who handle the framing narrative and “K-Day,” respectively, are both excellent. The inking by Steven Bird and art by Pericles Junior, Chris Batista and Geoff Shaw (along with Mark McKenna, Matt Banning, Tom Chu and Dom Regan) also impresses—and top marks to Tom Chu for his lettering.

Tales from the Drift, by Travis Beacham, Marcos Marz, and Joshua Fialkov 
Tales from the Drift followed in the wake of Year Zero. Originally intended as an ongoing, it was ultimately stepped down to a four-issue miniseries focusing on the Jaeger Tacit Ronin. One of the most striking designs in the Pacific Rim universe, Tacit Ronin (which gets only a cameo in the first film) was crying out for a little extra backstory, and that’s exactly what this is.
Duc and Kaori Jessop are Tacit Ronin’s final pilots. A married couple, the story follows the pair of them being thrown together by the kaiju war. Initially unable to stand the sight of one another, they are found to be Drift compatible and slowly fall in love. After they take a massive dose of radiation in the field, they’re honorably discharged. Until the next attack…
Reportedly based on the initial idea for Raleigh and Mako, the plot brings a welcome humanity and untidiness to the Drift process. Duc (Pronounced Duke) is a cocky fighter jock. Kaori is a scientist with no time or patience for his antics…and yet, when the pair connect through the Drift, they connect in every other way as well. The love they share feels real and contextual, and the script, based on a story by original screenwriter Travis Beacham and adapted by Joshua Hale Fialkov, is by turns heartfelt, tender, and cruel. You get to like these two people, and like them a lot. That makes their final sacrifice, especially viewed through Stacker’s eyes, all the more harrowing.
The art balances the expressionistic approach necessary to make the experience of the Drift palpable with some burly design work and well-composed action. Marclo Marz’s work is ably colored by Marcelo Maiolo, creating a personal, poignant chapter from the annals of the Kaiju War and lending subtle context to the film characters. It’s also a welcome look at what the movie’s approach to Raleigh and Mako could have been.
Pacific Rim is a franchise known for its monsters but made memorable by its humans. Both these books put them in the spotlight, and both the comics and the films are all the stronger for it. Apocalypse canceling has rarely been this fun.