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"Zarek" Part 1
Battlestar Galactica: Zarek #1 (Dynamite)
Writer: Brandon Jerwa
Art: Adriano Batista
Colors: Scott Kester
Letters: Simon Bowland
Cover A:
Adriano Batista
2006
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Young Tom Zarek grows up on a battle-torn
and suppressed Sagittaron.
Read the story summary of this
issue at the Battlestar Wiki
Notes from the BSG
chronology
This issue takes place from 50-30 years before the fall of the
Twelve Colonies.
Didja Know?
Battlestar Galactica: Zarek
was a 4-issue mini-series published by Dynamite
Entertainment, covering the origin of Tom Zarek.
Tom Zarek's relationship with his father is quite
different here than that depicted in the novel
The Cylons' Secret.
Here, he gets along well with his father, who is a poor
nitrassium worker who is killed by Colonial troops while
Tom is still a boy. In
The Cylons' Secret,
Tom's father was a successful businessman and considered Tom a
failure, mostly because Tom insisted on doing his own thing,
without the help of his family's business or money. Because
The Cylons' Secret
seems to have more contradictions to the TV series than
does this mini-series, I prefer to take the information
presented here as closer to canon than those of the
aforementioned novel.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Tom Zarek
Jerome Randall Zarek (dies in this issue)
Karen Sue Zarek
(dies in this issue)
Roderick Wallis (mentioned only)
Orrin Young
(mentioned only)
Cynthia
(mentioned only)
Taylor
(mentioned only)
Bettis
Devon Morehead
Didja Notice?
The preamble on the inside front cover of this issue states that
Zarek was a political activist for more than 30 years before the
fall of the Twelve Colonies. This appears to be consistent with
statements in episodes of the TV series. The novel
The
Cylons' Secret has him starting his activist
career about 10 years later, so that he would have been active
only 20 years at this time. The 30 years figure as stated here
must be considered the accurate one, as the TV episodes'
versions of the characters take precedence when conflicting data
is presented.
Throughout the mini-series, passages from Zarek's book The
Revolution Within are presented. It is mentioned in the TV
episode "Bastille Day" that Zarek had written a book that was
banned in the educational system of the Twelve Colonies, but the
book is not named; presumably it is the book named here,
The Revolution Within.
Thomas Zarek's middle initial is J.
On page 1, a 3-year old Tom was exposed to a battle between
Colonial Marines and the Cylons in Sagittaron City, the capital
of Sagittaron.
Some unusual-looking ships of the Colonial Marines are seen on
page 1.

One of the chief exports of Sagittaron is nitrassium, a
fertilizer. The word "nitrassium" is fictitious, but was
probably derived from nitrate/nitrogen, vital nutrients for
plants typically found in fertilizer.
Tom's parents are Jerome and Karen Zarek.
Page 7 features announcements from the Sagittaron News Network.
On page 8, Jerome seems to be showing little Thomas a picture of
the Arrow of Apollo in a book. The
Arrow of Apollo is a relic of the ancient human homeworld of
Kobol and is on display in the Delphi Museum of the Colonies in
the city of Delphi on the planet Caprica. It later becomes an
important key to the path to Earth in episodes of the TV series.
The back cover of the book Jerome is showing to Thomas has the name and image of
Space Battleship Yamato, a reference to the
Japanese science-fiction anime series of the same name
that ran on Japanese television 1974-1975. |
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Karen Zarek requires regular dosages of aelotol to treat
debilitating sickness from exposure to nitrassium. Aelotol
is, of course, a fictitious drug.
On pages 12-13 Jerome Zarek breaks into the Sagittaron City
Pharmacy to steal more of the expensive
aelotol his wife needs since they can't afford to pay for it.
Jerome's tombstone on page 15 reveals that his middle name was
Randall.
After the death of his father, Tom and his mother move to
Perseus Village, just north of Sagittaron City. There, he
attends Perseus Village Academy.
Tom's mother, Karen, becomes the outspoken founder of Citizens
for Sagittaron Labor Reform.
Karen's tombstone on page 21 reveals that
her middle name was Sue.