Director Bong Joon Ho returns to science fiction with Mickey 17, and the Robert Pattinson-led film has already hit a major box office milestone, soon expected to sur $30 million. This isn’t Bong’s first venture into futuristic sci-fi—his acclaimed film Snowpiercer, starring Chris Evans, also explored similar themes. Both films serve as sharp critiques of capitalism, using their futuristic settings to highlight class divisions, a hallmark of many great sci-fi stories.

This commentary on the critiques of capitalism carries over to other media, including comic books, especially independent and creator-owned comics. Eat the Rich by Sarah Gailey and Pius Bak is perhaps the most self-explanatory example of this, as the plot is about a woman meeting her boyfriend's extremely well-off family, who are cannibals with a taste for their staff.

Author Sarah Gailey delivers another anti-capitalist sci-fi story with Know Your Station, a comic that shares thematic similarities with Mickey 17. If this gripping tale ever makes it to the big screen, Bong Joon Ho would be the perfect director to bring its vision to life.

Know Your Station & Mickey 17: Sci-Fi Stories of Class Struggle in Space

How Both Tales Explore the Divide Between the Wealthy and the Desperate

By Sarah Gailey and Liana Kangas, Know Your Station sees the wealthiest of the wealthy flee Earth for a new life in space, abandoning everyone poorer than them to suffer the consequences of climate change. However, a few working-class individuals can this expedition if they work under the 1%. This setting is akin to Mickey 17's. In Mickey 17, Mark Ruffalo's villain–a failed politician with a God-complex–takes his devoted followers, as well as those desperate enough to get off a dying Earth, to an uncharted planet, putting their lives on the line for his safety, comfort, and ego.

Where the two stories diverge plot-wise is in of the main characters. In Mickey 17, the film follows the titular character, who is an expendable–a person who takes on the most dangerous, deadliest jobs on the ship because he's signed off on having a clone of himself made every time he dies. Meanwhile, Know Your Station sees Elise, one of the employees of the spaceship, investigate the murder of a billionaire as well as the conspiracy connected to it.

Know Your Station & Mickey 17: Sci-Fi Thrillers That Challenge Power and Identity

The Exploration of Class Struggles, AI, and the Nature of the Soul

Know Your Station is a sci-fi detective thriller, making it the perfect comic for Blade Runner fans, as well as fans of Bong Joon Ho's recent movie. Along with that, Know Your Station and Mickey 17 emphasize how the working-class characters have a lot more power than the 1% lead them to believe while also condemning the entitled, exploitative behavior of the 1%, emphasizing how they would be nothing without those they walk over and use.

Know Your Station also tackles themes of humanity and the soul, specifically with regard to the ship's AI. Having come out in 2022, Know Your Station was incredibly timely with its biting commentary on AI. Meanwhile, Mickey 17 asks what makes someone an individual if they can be copied and printed out. While handled in drastically different ways, both sci-fi stories explore similar philosophical questions. Given this, as well as how much fun Bong Joon Ho has had with Mickey 17, Know Your Station is a comic made for him, and it's not like he hasn't adapted this medium before.

Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer Proves He’s the Perfect Director for Know Your Station

How His Sci-Fi Masterpieces Make Him the Ideal Choice for This Anti-Capitalist Thriller

Before Bong Joon Ho's films Mickey 17, Okja, and Parasite, he directed an adaptation of the French graphic novel Snowpiercer by Jacques Lob and Jean-March Rochette. Like Mickey 17 and Know Your Station, this is a story that does not hold back in regard to its class commentary. In it, the survivors of a second ice age reside on an ever-moving train, with the poorest citizens forced to live in squalor while the wealthy travel first class. That all changes, though, when the poorest residents decide to rebel and take the train back for themselves.

As one of Chris Evan's best films, Snowpiercer is a phenomenal post-apocalyptic thriller that highlights how a system built on exploitation is far more fragile than those in power would like to believe. This alone proves that Bong Joon Ho would be the perfect director for a Know Your Station adaptation—with Mickey 17 only reinforcing that point. If Know Your Station ever makes it to the big screen, it belongs in Bong Joon Ho’s hands. And if that never happens, fans should still consider checking out this epic, Mickey 17-esque comic series.