Black Science REVIEW

**Note: This review covers the first three trade paper backs of Black Science (issues 1 – 16)**

What a time to be alive. Just take a look around you (hopefully you’re surrounded by the abundance of stellar science fiction comics that are being published these days).

Things are good, you guys. Like, really good. If you don’t believe me, or you’re not surrounded by the aforementioned stacks on stacks, I want you to conduct a little experiment: go to your local comic shop and ask the clerk for some currently ongoing sci-fi comic recommendations. The clerk should quickly drop several books in your arms. If they do not, leave that store and never come back, because that place is run by idiots.

Now, if your local comic store clerk is literate and/or clinically sane and they have indeed loaded you up with myriad exciting titles, there’s a damn good chance that some of these books, if not most of them, are written by His Royal Majesty Rick Remender, our lord and savior. BOW YOUR HEAD! Gaze upon your hypothetical stack of comics! Behold! Atop it lies Black Science!

This comic is unequivocal proof that Remender just might be the best living science fiction writer out there right now…and I don’t relegate that statement to just comics, I’m talking about the genre across the board.

I know that might seem a smidge hypocritical considering my lukewarm review of Tokyo Ghost, but that book is just getting started. Since I don’t review individual issues, my tune can change on a series. Just like a good TV show, a comics need time to evolve.

Black Science, however, does not need much time to get things rolling. The set-up of the book circles around a former member of a gonzo troupe of science folk known as The Anarchist Order of Scientists (yes, for-fucking-real: The Anarchist Order of Scientists) named Grant McKay, who has found a way to punch holes through our reality into other dimensions.

**This is not one of the good dimensions**

With his gang of Dimensionauts (which includes McKay’s kids, his mistress, the asshole bankrolling his project and his assistant, a badass ex-military dude, and a young scientist who is arguably the most likable character in the book) McKay runs into doppelgangers of everyone on the crew and strange worlds of would could be and what technically are…just not here…or there…or wherever. Look, guts, the plot gets pretty twisted up.

Basically, the book is what if Harlan Ellison wrote Gilligan’s Island.

**Gilligan’s doppelganger would have totally nailed Ginger**

Much like Remender’s previous masterpiece, Fear Agent, Black Science perfectly blends classic sci-fi tropes aped from works like Lost in Space and Flash Gordon with gallows humor and high concept social and moral challenging ideas.

At times, it feels like the comic is about to leave you in its dust, like it’s being difficult to follow for the sake of being difficult to follow, but things always come around full circle. There are several “oh, I see what you did there” moments in Black Science. The comic is constantly pushing the reader to their breaking point of fathoming the narrative but then rewarding with great pulpy twists and fantastic action.

Italian artist, Matteo Scalera’s work is wonderful and it truly feels at home with the hectic nature of the story. I’d like to see more from him. Follow him on twitter, by the way (@ScaleraMatteo). He’s always posting cool shit he’s working on. He reminds me of a more hyper-kinetic version of Sean Murphy.

**Look at this craziness!**

Black Science is probably the best true blue science fiction comic out there (I’m not talking about science fantasy like Saga, which is wonderful, too) and it’s being written by probably the best sci-fi writer on the block.

Volume 4 TBP comes out next month, so now is the perfect time to get caught up.

Go consume this.

Final Grade: A