Roleplaying, Comic books, and Science Fiction
Science Fiction Comic Books for your next Starforged Campaign
If you are looking for a quick campaign starter for Starforged, consider comic books. Forget the brightly colored super heroes and super villians. Ignore the characters in capes and tights. Look beyond the flashy super powers, and you’ll find many superhero comic books with strong science fiction elements to them. Some of our favorite comic books have strong space opera elements. Aliens, super weapons, and entire otherworldly cultures are waiting for you in these four-color, funny pages.
Marvel Comics
X-men Space Characters
The Shi’ar Imperium is an integral part of the X-men lore. The non-super-hero Shi’ar are a bird like species best known as religious fanatics. In the name of their gods, the Shi’ar have conquered their entire galaxy bringing all worlds under the Shi’ar Imperium’s control.
I would summarize the Shi’ar as “pretentious peacocks with a holier than thou attitude.’
In the early years, the Shi’ar were a Star Trek knock-off. Look at the interior of their ships and their uniforms. As the X-men evolved, the Shi’ar did too. New artists and writers expanded the Shi’ar beyond their spoof origins.
Marvel Comics with Space Characters
Consider these Marvel Comic books for your next Starforged role-playing adventure.
Classic X-men 13 / Uncanny X-men 105
First appearance of Shi’ar starships. A Shi’ar noble on the run from their siblings transports to your ship as her enemies destroy her vessel. Bug ships. Bird people. What could go wrong?
Starjammers mini-series from 1995
Two comic book masters, Warren Ellis and Carlos Pacheo, ditch the superheroes for a four issue mini-series that focuses on the space pirates as they try to save the Shi’ar Imperium from a new threat.
Uncanny X-men #275 - 277
Your sworn enemy, the sister of the empress asks for your help in killing her sister. Shape-changers. Political intrigue. Huge battles. This one has it all.
References
No affiliation between The Untrodden Ways and any of these references. The mention of or references to any companies or products on this homebrew blog post is not a challenge to the trademarks or copyrights concerned.
- Ironsworn is copyright Tomkin Press. Ironsworn Game Engine used with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
- X-men, Starjammers, and Shi’ar are copyright of Disney DTC LLC.
- Star Trek is a trademark of CBS Studios Inc.
Raw artwork provided by Pexels and Morguefile: flyingpete, alex_france, chris-f, cottonbro, theshuttervision