Written by a staff writer on the show based on writers' room discussions during the final season, this graphic novel (while not technically canon) is best read after all Final Five cylons are revealed on the show, possibly after seeing the related film "The Plan".

From a story standpoint, this is very well done, giving a fleshed out frame for the rather chaotic backstory of the Battlestar Galactica Final Five cylons that (as far as I can tell) doesn't conflict with any of the canon material. The art, however, leaves a lot to be desired. It is nice enough to look at, but it does an awful job bringing clarity to the many confused location and time jumps, and the likenesses of the characters are (with the exception of a couple of Cavil panels) very poor, adding much to the confusion.

The confusing art aside, this comic clears up a lot of things for me, though it adds some new odd questions (I'm very much not clear on this connection between Pythia and Starbuck that the artwork indicates, for instance) and towards the end seems to confuse the locations of Kobol and the Twelve Colonies. I really wish it could have been edited or overseen by Ron Moore himself and brought properly into the canon of the show, because unncessary peeves like this aside, I'm genuinely very satisfied with this backstory and am happy to have it inform my understanding of the characters on future viewings of the show. ( )

I bought this to read while rewatching Battlestar Galactia from the beginning, because it professed to tell the back-story of its titular characters (the five of the Twelve Cylon “skin jobs” whose identities were not revealed until very late in the series). As is the case with most such tie-in graphic novels, the art is pretty awful. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t make much sense either. Perhaps I should have waited until I’d finished my rewatch before reading it, maybe then it would have made more sense. I can’t remember from my previous viewing of Battlestar Galactica if Earth was supposed to have an ancient technological society which then disappeared (leaving no evidence of its existence; strange, that…), or not. From what I do remember, the Galactica arrived at Earth in its prehistory – although there was another Earth-like world in there somewhere, although that planet destroyed itself in a nuclear war. Anyway, I was put off a bit by the generally bad art, and since my comics reading these days seems to be limited to translated bandes dessinée (I’m no longer interested in reading about fascists in tights), so I’ve probably lost the knack of reading US graphic novels. But maybe if I give The Final Five a go after I’ve watched all of Battlestar Galactica again… And yes, I still consider Battlestar Galactica the best television sf series ever made, and among the best television series ever made of any genre. ( )

Another excellent graphic Novel from Dynamite, telling the story of the final five cylons (human looking cylons), dating from thousands of years prior to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series, right up to the date of the series, shows their origin, how they became introduced into the cylons fighting the 12 colonies, and how they embedded themselves into the cylons population. It is good to have the opportunity to have an explanation of how the final five cylons came to be, a topic that was not explored in depth in the TV series. Dynamite have created a good sensible story line, which jumps across time, and the universe, excellent graphics, brilliant. For any fan of the Battlestar Galacica series, this book is a bit like an history lesson for the final five cylons and well worth a read ( )