Like the 90’s TV show Sliders dipped in a swirling pot of multicoloured paint, Black Science traps a small group of scientists and hangers-on in a constantly shuffling world, as they traverse alternative universes hoping to stumble upon the right parts and equipment to fix their machine and head home.
Grant McKay, self-professed trailblazer and ‘Anarchist Scientist’ is a conflicted chap. On one hand, he has successfully broken through the barriers of reality with the Pillar, a device of his own creation; but on the other, he’s now trapped in a dangerous cycle of violent and hostile worlds with his kids to protect, an affair to hide and an officious couple of company people to contend with. Somebody has sabotaged his machine and they are now stranded, randomly leaping from dimension to dimension in random bursts. Their only hope is to stay alive long enough to rebuild what was broken and discover who or what has it in for them.
Rick Remender’s writing is typically fast-paced, never letting up for a second as the team traverse varied versions of our world populated by giant bulbous frogs, eerily reminiscent apes and a Native American/German trench war. The dimension-hopping setup certainly allows for a great variety of worlds, and would enable the comic to stay fresh for as long as necessary as various team members are killed off and truths unearthed. The characters are engaging, each one suffering from some sort of morality defect, and even their most noblest of thoughts might well be misguided. The slow use of flashbacks helps pull the plot together and prepares you for the revealing final act of the first volume.
Matteo Scalera’s artwork is stunning throughout. Colourful, elastic and detailed, it has a real depth to it and a brilliant sense of space and movement. Characters are brilliantly depicted, with elongated limbs and expressive faces that border on cartoonish but avoid tipping over the edge. There is a slight sketchiness to the linework which helps gives the drawings a real kinetic feeling, and the myriad landscapes provide a glorious backdrop for the frenetic action. From a colouring point of view, Dean White’s work is similarly magnificent, foregoing dull and flat digital colours and instead replacing it with vivid and textural painting and shading. The colours are bold when they need to be, and a particular emphasis must be given towards his brilliant use of black and highlights.
Overall, it’s the perfect gift for any fans of weird science and entertaining pulp science-fiction, and a brightly coloured explosion of anarchy in a world of grim comics and grey shades.
