FEAR OF A RED PLANET (2022)

Mars.  Fifty years from now, humanity's first Martian colony is no longer self-sustaining. Under the thumb of its corporate mining overlords, the surviving colonists slave away just to pay for resupply rockets from Earth, will little or no hope of returning home. One woman has kept a fragile peace: the U.N.'s first and only interplanetary marshal.  A lawwoman escaping a violent past on Earth, she prides herself on never having fired a shot on Mars. But when she's tasked with solving the murder of the colony's most hated man, her investigation threatens to tear the red planet apart.     Written by Mark Sable (MISKATONIC, WHERE STARSHIPS GO TO DIE) and illustrated by Andrea Olimpieri (Dishonored, Dark Souls), FEAR OF A RED PLANET is a near-future western with the hard sci-fi of The Expanse and the hard-boiled gunslinging of Justified.

Fifty years from now, Mars has experienced its first murder. The earth-based corporation in charge of the mining colony treats its Martian employees like indentured servants, and now their overseer is dead by unknown hands. The Board of Directors tasks Carolina Law, the U.N. Marshal responsible for the planet's justice, with apprehending a suspect...whether or not he's guilty of murder. Unfortunately for Carolina, the Board's primary suspect is a local hero, known for destroying robots sent to replace human workers. As tensions escalate, Carolina must choose which is more important - justice or peace.

Forced to let go of a popular suspect to prevent a riot, Carolina's been ordered to arrest anyone, regardless of their guilt, to restore order and keep her job. This puts her up against a former cosmonaut turned cantina owner who keeps the colony drunk and placid, and the planet's only fresh food supplier, who runs his farming facility like a plantation. Both have henchman armed to the teeth.     

Carolina Law, the U.N. Marshal tasked with keeping the peace on Mars' struggling colony, is trying to solve its first murder. In so doing, she's arrested the two most dangerous individuals on the planet. But both have angry private militias waiting to free their bosses without a moment's hesitation...   

The startling conclusion to the hit near-future, sci-fi Western! Mars, 2075. U.N. Marshal Carolina Law has just solved the first murder on Mars. But she's also uncovered a deep-seeded clandestine conspiracy that may doom Mars' first colony to be its last!