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EXCLUSIVE: Edgeworld #14 Front Cover, Synopsis and Preview Pages

The Curator
6 days ago
3 min read

Previously on Edgeworld...

Welcome to Edgeworld. Population? Royally pissed-off aliens, human supremacists, broken lawmen, and one portal to the rest of the damn galaxy. It’s dusty, deadly, and just barely hanging together. This ain’t your shiny sci-fi utopia — it’s the far reaches of the Confederation’s grip, where justice is what you can enforce with a plasma rifle and a bad attitude.

Across the first thirteen issues of Edgeworld, Chuck Austen and Patrick Olliffe deliver a brutal, unfiltered odyssey of moral rot and personal ruin dressed up in space-western drag. Think Deadwood in space, but with more tentacles and fewer redeeming qualities.

At the eye of this cosmic sh*tstorm is Chief Killian Jess, ex-military, ex-hopeful, and current disaster. He’s the marshal of Pala, a barely-contained outpost where species tension simmers just below the surface and everyone’s got blood on their hands. His job? Keep the peace. Reality? He’s knee-deep in corpses, corruption, and a planet-wide identity crisis.

Issues #1–5 kick things off with a political execution disguised as a murder mystery. A Confederate senator’s son turns up dead, and wouldn’t you know it, the killer’s not just local — he’s alien. The kind of thing that sparks riots and political posturing. Killian goes full noir-detective mode, uncovering a festering wound of exploitation, privilege, and good old-fashioned species-ist hate. It's a powder keg — and Pala's out of sandbags.

Enter Kataka. His partner in law and in bed. A six-limbed alien medic with the patience of a saint and the sass of a war general. She’s the heart of the book—and the only thing keeping Killian from dissolving into his own guilt stew. Their chemistry crackles. Their future? As doomed as the planet they’re trying to protect.

Issues #6–9 turn the volume up. The native alien tribes are done playing nice. The RiftGate — the portal tech holding the Confederation’s empire together — is a bullseye for sabotage. Killian becomes the go-between for a species on the brink of revolution and an empire that would rather sterilize the place than lose control. The body count rises, allegiances blur, and Killian finds himself this close to snapping.

Then, the emotional gut-punch.

Issues #10–13 rip the soul out of Killian’s last shot at redemption. Kataka is ambushed and left in a coma. Killian, hollowed out and haunted, does what broken people do best: he pushes love away. He hands over Cheela, the adopted alien girl they were raising, and Little Guy, the adorably weird mystery critter, to a family headed off-world. Because maybe — just maybe — they deserve a shot at peace, even if he never will.

But Cheela’s new school? Yeah. About that.

Her teacher casually drops that she’s plotting to destroy the RiftGate. And surprise — Cheela’s part of the plan. Because nothing says teen trauma like being recruited for galactic-scale sabotage.

All in all, the story of Edgeworld so far has been a slow-burn powder keg with a lit fuse made of moral ambiguity, systemic rot, and personal despair. If you're looking for a hopeful space opera, go elsewhere. If you're after something raw, real, and ruinous?

Pull up a barstool, pour a double, and get ready to bleed because issue 14 of Edgeworld is about to hit you where it hurts.

Exclusive Edgeworld #14 Preview

Edgeworld #14

Writer/Artist: Chuck Austen

Colorist: Lee Loughridge

Created by Chuck Austen and Patrick Olliffe

With Kataka in an apparently permanent coma, Killian’s plans for a family life are in the coma with her. Believing it to be in their best interest, he decides to give Cheela and Little Guy up for adoption to a nice family leaving for other, quieter, more peaceful worlds. Meanwhile, Cheela’s new teacher admits she’s behind a plot to destroy the RiftGate — and she needs Cheela’s help to do it!