Digging Into Dead Space: The Supplemental Materials (Pt. 1)
By jakob187 7 Comments
For anyone out there with an interest beyond just blasting the limbs off Necromorphs, there's a plethora of supplemental material that fleshes out (no pun intended) the world that has been created around Dead Space. How much? Well, to give an example, the range of material that has been released so far includes a comic book series (Dead Space), two films (Dead Space: Downfall and Dead Space: Aftermath), a novel (Dead Space: Martyr), a graphic novel (Dead Space: Salvage), and five video games (Dead Space, Dead Space 2, Dead Space: Extraction, Dead Space for iPhone/iPad and Dead Space: Ignition). All of those materials, plus additional audio and text logs within the games, span the course of some 300 YEARS WORTH OF FICTION!!!
300 years, folks! To put that in perspective, that length of time in American history covers the founding of Plymouth Colony in 1620 to around the beginning of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Sure, there are universes like Star Wars, Star Trek, and even Mass Effect that cover a massive frame of time beyond that, but it's interesting that a franchise like Dead Space would have this deep of a fiction. Nonetheless, it means that there can be a dilemma when digging into these materials: where do you start?
Even if you do know where to start, many may ask "what's the importance of anything besides what happens with Isaac Clarke?". While the struggles that Isaac must go through are what many know as "Dead Space", there is so much beyond it that many don't realize. For instance, why was the Ishimura at Aegis 7? What's the deal with so much mining and digging in the universe? How does Unitology play into all of this?
Well, fear not! Over the next week or two, I'll be doing some regular blogs to get you immersed in the world without having to spend an arm and a leg on a ton of materials...unless you really want to. Seriously, I'm not kidding. The price for a hardcover copy of the original Dead Space comics runs you a minimum of about $100 used...and up to $1,200 brand new and still sealed!!!
****WARNING! This blog may contain spoilers to any and/or all of the games, books, comics, and other forms of media in the Dead Space universe.***
The Resource Wars
The reason for all of the mining and resource digging is simple: The Resource Wars. After the last bit of resources were drained from Earth, people and...more importantly...corporations needed to find a new way to get resources. In turn, planet-cracking was invented. This was achieved with massive ships, but because of the lack of resources and the race to find new ones, war broke out. Multi-factional divides began springing up, and the height of the Resource Wars took place on Scorpio 6, a human colony. Three factions fought, but in the end, it proved useless for everyone involved. The Resource Wars were largely ended by the year 2508, which leads all the up to the beginning of the first Dead Space game. The war raged on for the better part of at least 80 years.Materials related to The Resource Wars include the original Dead Space six-issue limited series, Dead Space: Downfall, and Dead Space: Extraction.
The Founding of Unitology by Michael Altman
Before the Resource Wars kicked into high gear, Michael Altman was part of a secret research project to decipher and translate the findings of the Black Marker, the original alien artifact that was discovered in the early 2200's. As he continued to decipher it, he found that it caused intense visions and violence amongst most that came in close proximity of it...well, except to him. Because of this non-reaction, Altman was seen by many as a prophet. In the wake of this, Altman founded the religion of Unitology and exposed the existence of the Black Marker to the people of the universe. Shortly after, he was assassinated by the Earth Government for outing the existence of alien life. In order to make it work to their benefit, Earthgov had Altman killed by a necromorph in order to make him look like a martyr. Because of his martyrdom, Altman's beliefs in Unitology led a large social movement that created the Church of Scientology, which believed that the Black Marker was a gift from God. By the time that the Red Marker was reverse-engineered from the Black Marker about 100 years after the discovery of the Black Marker, Unitology had become a interstellar religion.Materials related to Michael Altman include Dead Space: Martyr, while material pertaining to Unitology spans the majority of the material in the Dead Space franchise.
Stay tuned for next week when we'll be discussing the significance of the USG Ishimura and the Markers.