FREE SCI-FI COMIC: Black Science
Grant McKay is the genius inventor of a device that allows transportation between alternate universes. He and his team of 'Dimensionauts' - including his teenage daughter and son - find themselves in a hostile environment populated by bizarre aquatic humanoids. When they discover that the Pillar has been sabotaged, there is no way to control when and where it will take them next...
Our hapless heroes are flung from one exotic locale to the next, most of them full of dangerous inhabitants: frog people with electric whip tongues, German World War One soldiers at war with technologically advanced Native American braves, futuristic Romans, ape-like humanoids possessed by gaseous parasites, death-cult insects...
Plus they also encounter alternate versions of themselves - some human, some not; some friendly, some quite the opposite...
Black Science by writer Rick Remender and artist Matteo Scalera is a high-stakes action drama that kicks off with McKay fighting to keep his team alive in a series of challenging arenas. The team also has internal battles to face: who sabotaged the Pillar, and why? Was it McKay's boss Kadir, who used to date McKay's wife Sarah before McKay stole her away from him?
The complex narrative weaves in many issues. McKay's intention was to use the Pillar to benefit humankind by accessing other dimensions for unlimited resources and advanced technology, but things quickly seem to backfire... trespassing into alternate universes risks spreading contaminants of various kinds, plus the very act of punching through those walls separating realities seems to be having a disastrous result on the Eververse as a whole... The good intentions of the genius creator appear to lead to chaos.
Good intentions - even noble ones - are not enough. McKay's drive to complete his project resulted in the neglect of his family. Always an idealist, determined to create breakthroughs that would benefit all without becoming part of a corporate culture, his obsession led him away from what he cherished the most.
The characters have complex, tangled relationships and, despite the many fantastical backdrops, their behaviour is all too believable... These are not always the most heroic of heroes. McKay has an affair with one of his team mates. Kadir harbours an undying resentment for McKay, not without some justification, it must be said. Dimensionaut Rebecca finds a world in which she can be reunited with her twin brother who died when they were children. She just has one inconvenient obstacle to deal with in order to be with him: the other Rebecca...
A recurring theme is the pitfalls of pride. The genius believes that his noble quest can lead only to bounteous wonders... There is an echo here of sci-fi movies of the 1950s era in which 'playing God' inevitably led to ruin. Is the whole endeavour cursed? The native American shaman who joins them certainly thinks so, hence the title. And if the science is 'black', is the scientist? McKay is doing 'the right thing' but with a pompous arrogance that poisons everything else in his life.
Scalera's style is loosely expressive bordering on caricature, yet he never fails to deliver the right emotional tone. His various aliens and monsters are exotic delights. The wide range of unearthly landscapes are well rendered: the creepy swamp of the frog people, futuristic cities, nightmarish wastelands, plus the occasional foray into 'normal' territory (which often turns out to be far from homely)...
The reader has to stay focused to keep up because the story is like fragments of a shattered mirror, each one showing a different image. In an Eververse where anything can happen - and can find its way to your reality - nowhere is safe.
When any choice you make creates an infinite number of new universes, reality starts to look like a mirage. Our heroes struggle to make the right choices to preserve what is precious to them, but they cannot predict what the consequences will be and frequently achieve the opposite of what they were hoping for.
It's almost as if... Life isn't fair? But if anything that can happen will happen, does it matter what happens in this reality?
With universe after universe showing a never-ending series of fantastical possibilities - and impossibilities - our heroes may find themselves wondering: is anything real?
Zak Webber
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