Writer: John Layman
Artist: Afu Chan
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
“AND CAST THE WORTHLESS SERVANT INTO
THE OUTER DARKNESS. IN THAT PLACE THERE
WILL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH.” – Matthew 25:30
Image Comics debuted their newest sci-fi contender today titled Outer Darkness. The story opens up aboard the starship Charon, where two of its crew members are being possessed by demons. The main character of the story, Joshua Rigg, quickly takes control of the situation of being stuck smack-dab in the middle of a necro-storm with two of his crew members incapacitated and even defies his superior in order to make it out safely.
After holding a gun to the captain of the ship, the next page picks up 3 weeks later. We then find our bad-mouthed hero in a place where all heroes find themselves at one point or another, in a bar. After ordering another round of holy water, and essentially telling the barkeep to leave the bottle this time, Joshua Rigg is confronted by another character in the story, Agwe. The Voodoo Man, as Joshua calls him, seems to be his closest friend, and is certainly not afraid to call him out on his bullsh*t.
Another character is introduced as Admiral Siddarth, who has a proposal for our protagonist and wants him to go on a mission with perks that Joshua Rigg can’t seem to refuse. Throughout reading Outer Darkness #1, so many different aspects stood out to me as nothing less of stellar. The colorful language brings realism to the pages, and to (what must be) the harsh environment of a starship crew. And as a horror fan, the fact that (spoiler alert) the ships engine is run by a monster that needs to be fed humans to survive is whimsically terrible and I love it.
Verdict: BUY! As a comic book reader that has never really left my comfort zone of Marvel and DC, I found Outer Darkness to be an invigorating first chapter in a fantastical new world! Through the diversity of the characters, and the one-of-a-kind art that somewhat resembles (for me) the comfort of my childhood fave, The Magic School Bus, I am totally hooked on this new world!
