Review: Black Science, Vol. 2: Welcome, Nowhere

Black Science, Vol. 2: Welcome, Nowhere by Rick Remender
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Black Science is an ambitious work. The whole Quantum Leap/Sliders/Star Gate combo, flying through parallel universes, trying to get home, possibly running into alternate versions of themselves, all while surviving on very alien versions of Earth... this is big complicated pulpy sci-fi goodness. It really should be an easy sell, as well. So why is this volume such a mess?

The artwork, by Scalera, White, and Spicer is certainly partially responsible. While there are plenty of really inspired and interesting visuals here--see, for instance, the opening splash page depicting an alien Colosseum and fish drawn chariot--too much of the book is really muddy and hard to decipher. Action sequences, in particular, read very poorly. While the designs themselves are visually appealing, the backgrounds are often indistinct smudges and blobs, and the color palate relies heavily on dark blues, greens, purples, and browns.

Remender also has the unfortunate habit of jumping around wildly, making following the story--which would, frankly, be pretty difficult anyway, given that we're dealing with multiple versions of the characters traveling through parallel realities--more difficult than it needs to be. I'm not sure that focusing on Pia and Nate for so much of the story was a wise narrative move. Pia and Nate are two of the weakest characters in this volume. Pia, in particular, spends far too much of the story being bitter and whiny to be enjoyable. I understand that she's supposed to be dealing with the fallout of the last volume's events, but you'd think that running for your lives on an alien reality might provide a little bit more perspective than she seems to have about her priorities. Maybe while fleeing from psychic centipede monsters isn't the best time to have the "our dad is a jerk" conversation?

Still, even with those complaints, there's still a solid core of total awesomeness here. Remender is losing some good will here, but there's enough crunch sci-fi goodness for me to give volume 3 a chance. Get it together, Remender. You've got a great set-up, now do good things with it.

View all my reviews