As talked about in a previous Post, seasoned comic readers understand just how impactful “Image Comics” have become in the past few years, owning about 10% of all comic sales this past year (“Marvel” owning about 33%, and “DC” owning about 25%). But none of those numbers mean anything if the company doesn’t produce quality stories that rival, or even better those books centered on web-slingers and billionaire bat-gods.

Image books like East of West, by Johnathan Hickman,and Saga, by Brian K. Vaughn,have been ruling the “Image Comics” stands right next to a little book called The Walking Dead for over a year now, so it certainly feels like it is time for a new book to join this comic hierarchy.

Saga won a multitude of Eisner awards in both 2012 and 2013, ‘Best-New-Series’ and ‘Best-Continuing-Series’ among this multitude (with East of West being my personal favorite “Image Comics” series), so the question is, “How does Black Science by Rick Reminder hold up against these powerhouses?” The short answer- very well.

Black Science is about an anarchist scientist named Grant McKay, and his successful mission to create a machine that ports him and his fellow scientists to a multitude of worlds in a multiverse of galaxies in the hopes to gain new scientific knowledge as well as unidentified “supplies” to bring back to Earth. In classic sci-fi style, their world-hopping machine goes wild and begins porting these scientists to multiple worlds around many solar systems.

Along the way we see fantastic alien creatures, societies, and brushes with death that hark back to other space epics that came before it, namely “Star Trek,” but in new and very creative ways. Remender has his usual, “life is darkest when loved ones are involved” plot points that create a sense of real drama and danger any time his two children get near an electrified frog or mechanical, future version of Grant McKay from another dimension—oh yeah, it’s crazy.

The death of a main character at the stories end (which I won’t spoil here) is something completely unexpected and dramatic that will affect the story as it makes its way into its second storyline. That is one of the reasons this book really is so great- it takes risks.

 Remender is not one to shy away from doing something out of the norm in graphic storytelling, which makes for some fantastic character moments. One in particular is the relationship between McKay’s daughter and his ‘mistress,’ over what to do with the loss of one of their group members. What is a shame though is the one element of the story that has been done to death as of lately, and something that may be irksome to people (like me) who are sick of the stereotypical story-tropes- McKay is sleeping with one of his workmates, cheating on his wife, while his kids are around him. Now, this isn’t a bad section of the story, and plays out as some of the best scripted emotional pieces in the whole story, but it is one of those story elements that have been done so much recently that it may come off as lazy or even annoying to certain readers. With that being said, it really is the most distracting thing I could find in Remender’s storytelling.

Art by “Marvel” artist Matteo Scalera is absolutely incredible, pushing that indie-book look further into the realm of the best comic art on shelves today. Everything is crisp, clean, and eerie, causing the multitude of worlds to feel truly alive and inhabited by its many creatures.

The pencils works in tandem with, whom I feel is the true star of the book, colorist Dean White, who takes this book and makes it absolutely gorgeous. His paint splatters, deeps colors and striking uses of light shine (excuse the pun), as this colossal story is lifted from exceptional to fantastic

Black Science is by far one of the best space-exploration story on shelves today, and one of “Image’s” most exciting books in general. The story is fast, but packed with emotion, character development, and the questioning of morality. This book stands proudly beside Saga, and is a story anyone would want to read again a few short months after its purchase.  

Score: 9.5

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