Video Game Spin-Offs: Mass Effect "Foundation" #9

(Spoilers!) The ninth issue in the Mass Effect "Foundation" series takes up the story of the Salarian scientist Dr. Mordin Solus.  The story starts off as Rasa wakes up from her brush with the Drell assassin, Thane Krios.  Miranda greets her and informs her, none too politely, that she expects Rasa to immediately get to work compiling the dossiers of prospective crew members to accompany Commander Shepard after the Lazarus project is complete.

The first dossier on the list is that of Dr. Mordin Solus.  In Mass Effect 2 Shepard becomes familiar with the Salarian doctor and his work on the genophage project.  In the comic a clearer picture of Mordins involvement on the project is painted.  The story starts off with a group of Salarians plotting to plant a new and improved genophage on the Krogan homeworld of Tuchanka.  Dr. Solus is given the honor (or curse depending on your perspective) of creating this new genophage, testing it, and deploying it.

The Salarian Special Tactics Group is sent to Tuchanka with Dr. Solus to help him deploy the new genophage.  It is a race against time because there is a large storm moving towards the area they need to be in to effectively disperse this new virus.  As they approach the pre-determined area they run into a group of Krogan who are participating in some sort of religious ceremony.  When the Krogan become alerted to their presence a firefight breaks out between the two groups.  Mordin flexes his scrawny Salarian muscles and shows that even though they're considerably smaller than the Krogan, you shouldn't overlook a Salarian in a fight.

The other scientists in the group are shocked at Mordin's fighting abilities but are busy trying to configure the device that is going to release the new genophage.  A female Krogan survives and confronts Mordin about what he is doing.  There is an interesting exchange between Mordin and the female that confirms the difficulty of the choice of the Salarians to use the genophage.  A sudden explosion rips through the area and Mordin is injured and the Krogan female is killed (this is where he sustains the injury to his cranial horn).  A few members of his team survive and manage to drag him back to the Salarian ship.  Once on board the other Salarians ask him about what the Krogan said to him.  It's at this point that Mordin appears to have doubts about the use of the genophage.

This issue was another good one in the series.  I felt like it did add some significant details to Mordin's back story and again highlighted the fact that he is very conflicted about the use of the genophage.  He's not the cold, calculating figure that you argue with in Mass Effect 2 but is actually somewhat torn about the usage of the genophage.