There's no one singular color that rules The Hard Switch, but there is one that hits you immediately. I'm about to get very tactile here, but in order to read the thing in your hands you must first remove the dust jacket. Do people read books with those on? I never do. Either way, when you do that, you are greeted with a vibrant yellow. Yellow is also present in the opening pages, an expanse of craggy canyons across a desolate alien world awash in them against a green sky. The book, being a sci-fi adventure crossing multiple worlds, does the comics equivalent of what something like (and I'm sorry to be so basic here) Star Wars does with alien settings. Every planet gets a different color to evoke a different mood, using cinematography or color grading. The desert browns of Tatooine, the stark greys of the Death Star, the frigid blues and whites of Hoth. You get the idea. The Hard Switch does much the same, the yellow and green of the canyons of planet Dakhos giving way to yellow and red of civilization, to the dark blues of an abandoned ship in deep space and finally vibrant blues for the climax on Pathasta'non.
Yellow remains, however, a constant. Not just in the canyons which open the book, but the living space of our protagonists' ship is awash in warm and comfy yellows. This also goes for the living spaces of Dakhos, yellow mixed with red. It's an odd contrast, giving both the warmth of home amongst the stars while also representing this alien desolation. Paired with the plot of the book, this conflict is complimentary to it. The story of The Hard Switch evokes a lot of media I am fond of: Dirty Pair, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, and even esoteric things like Dragon's Heaven. The titular hard switch refers to the magic space rock which makes FTL travel possible in this world being all but exhausted, and what the scattered life across the galaxy will do in the wake of that. Times are rough, as piracy and pillaging are rampant while the cost of living increases and betrayals can happen at any moment. Our protagonist women are not immune, having to kill to survive and debating difficult choices made out of practicality instead of empathy. This is not a world that has moved on, but a world that is moving on, and there's a question of what that means.
Of course, those at the top of the food chain will cling to their status quo by any means necessary. The climax of the book is like something out of Miami Vice (oh, did I give away what's next?) in which the very heart of imperialism and capitalism is confronted by two brave souls trying to do the right thing and keep their souls on the line. The rich and powerful in this galaxy have alien tablets which could potentially bring about a world of post-scarcity when it comes to FTL travel, but they don't want to. Best to hoard it, to kill whoever gets in their way, and to keep the world as it is as much as possible. Fuck that. The finale of The Hard Switch is a ballet of violence, of resistance, of doing the right thing and trying to change the world in the right way as everything around you crumbles. It resonates with me and everything I believe in, and is told wonderfully in an engaging art style, the blue serenity of this capitalist world mixed with the sudden reds of violent resistance against it. It's a lovely book, and I'm glad I read it. A quarter of the way there, folks. Let's voyage on with what we have left.
