- Dark Empty Void #2
- Mad Cave Studios
- Written by Zack Kaplan
- Illustrated by Chris Shehan
- Colors by Francesco Segala
- Flats by Agnese Pozza
- Letters by Justin Birch
- Diamond Code: AUG241928
Lunar Code: 0824MA531
Fear mounts. Psychologist Joy Frank, her estranged husband, and a team of soldiers and scientists set out on a mission to take the mysterious human girl to the center of the black hole, but as they cross into the cosmic maelstrom, and into a strange world that contains surreal alien life from the black hole itself, they will soon learn why the other teams never came out.
Mad Cave has been putting out some of my current favorite titles, all-new spins on some of the classics (Dick Tracy, Gatchaman, Flash Gordon). Zack Kaplan has been the writer behind a few titles that have made their way onto my list of new favorites (Kill All Immortals, Beyond Real, Forever Forward). Chris Shehan, Francesco Segala, & Justin Birch make up the artistic team behind one of the best new monster hunter titles in years (House of Slaughter). When you bring them all together, you get a gigantic peanut butter cup of a cutting-edge sci-fi comic.
Dark Empty Void explores the Ian Malcolm Theorem of Problematic Advancement… “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” In this case, they’ve created a microscopic black hole in a top-secret underground facility. By itself, that’s a great story with all kinds of opportunities for catastrophic mayhem. Kaplan isn’t satisfied with that as, in the first issue, he drops a human-seeming woman out of the black hole with one demand: “We need to go back.”
This second issue begins the exploration of the black hole itself, opening a whole new world of possibilities… for better or for worse. Kaplan has a knack for providing just the right amount of information at the right time, avoiding unnecessary exposition, and trusting the reader to put it all together. That’s not a small ask when we’re talking about the world of astrophysics, but Kaplan works enough humanity into his story that it takes the pressure off. His characters come across as people, each with their own foibles & idiosyncrasies so no one comes across as a cannon fodder or maybe even worse, nothing more than a placeholder.
Backing up the layered and engaging science fiction story, you’d want to call on a top-notch team of art commandos. Void’s world opens up in the second issue as we go from the cold lines of a hi-tech facility to the unexplored world skirting the edge of the event horizon. Chris Shehan’s illustrations give it shape, laying a fantastical foundation with one packed panel after another. That foundation is filled out and given depth by Francesco Segala’s colors. It’s the kind of pairing on which the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” was built. I was a fan of this team in House of Slaughter, & that admiration has multiplied since seeing their work continued in Void.
Finally, I have to give the nod to Justin Birch, a letterer whose name on a book ensures words aren’t just being dumped on the page. Birch keeps the script moving along from panel to panel, never interrupting the artwork that’s such an important part of this story. There have been several comics I’ve seen where great art was stepped on by bad lettering… but none of them have had Justin Birch’s name on the cover.
With horror elements reminiscent of movies like Alien & the lesser-known Event Horizon (seriously, if you’re looking for Lovecraftian sci-fi, this is the flick for you), Dark Empty Void has something for fans of multiple genres. It’s an outstanding example of how Mad Cave has built its house on an ideal of cross-pollination of story categories. Horror, survival, great character work, world building… it’s all happening in these pages & I recommend this one to anyone who loves good storytelling.
Final Score: 12/13
