This sequel to Scarlet Traces is more conclusive and satisfying than the original. In this volume, the Earth-Mars war (or more accurately, the British-Martian war) reaches its climax. Two characters--a hero and a villain--from the first volume provide continuity of plot as well as setting. The protagonist in The Great Game is a woman photojournalist, who infiltrates an interplanetary military expedition in order to find out what's really happening on the Martian front. The art is consistent with the first volume, although artist d'Israeli has gone all in for CGI modeling techniques in the interim, with rewarding results for architecture, spaceship design, and so forth. Particularly in the final sections of the story, it seemed like the facial expressions of shock and horror got really extreme.

This instalment is much better than the previous volume, and very ambitious in scale, however it still feels rushed. After a promising start, the story fails to deliver and gets resolved in a few final pages with what looks like a "deus-ex-machina" trick. The art is good, but I feel that a longer treatment would have suited the story much better; there's very little subtlety, with the bad guys explaining their plans in long dialogues like it was a Flash Gordon adventure (it's 2008, for Moore's sake!). But if you like the classics like Flash or Dan Dare, this is for you. ( )

Wonderful graphic novel about what takes place after the Martians have invaded Earth in "War of the Worlds". This book posits the idea: "What if we went to Mars and attacked them?"

Great story and awesome illustration. ( )