Comic review: Black Science #16- The death of a pointless comic book

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Matteo Scalera
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 8th July 2015



Black Science #16 begins with the main protagonist feeling like everything he has ever done in his life has been:

‘One giant fn waste of time.’

Decent art, blah book.

I know exactly how he feels. I’ve been reading this book for sixteen issues now, and I don't understand why I bothered with it in the first place.

The overall message of Black Science #16 is that you shouldn’t bother doing ANYTHING. If you try to do something extraordinary then bad things will happen to you.

Therefore, you might as well spend your life in safety, living in the suburbs with your wife and kids, going to their baseball games, not spending too much time at work, and keeping your head down in order to have a safe, unexciting and uneventful life.

Whenever I read this book I read the writer, not the characters. That’s not good.

I read the characters and I see familiar clichés and a guy heading up a creative writing course, showing you how to put the pieces into place, but with no real desire to say anything dangerous or to kick against a system that he’s perfectly happy with.

I read a guy with a comfortable career, and a nice wife and kids at home, so why cause trouble when tea is ready at five and the grass needs to be mown before suppertime?

There’s nothing wrong with that kind of life, but when that mentality seeps through into the comic book narrative it doesn’t exactly set my world on fire.

How could it?

What I am reading in Black Science is a desire to compromise and to play it safe. Okay Rick, play it safe, I wish you the best, but you are writing safety when I want revolution, and as I see a world badly in need of revolution, not safety and compromise, why should I keep on reading your safety, career and suburban isolation comic book narratives?

Middle aged bloke + girl to have affair with.

Rick won’t respond, and why should he? He’s doing fine, and I’m just a no-nothing guy on the Internet. He’ll keep on pumping out this stuff, and his name alone will keep on selling these mediocre narratives for a good few years yet, so why should he change?

I don’t hate the book, but it’s just a book, just another comic book sci-fi narrative, that reflects nothing, and so, why should I bother with it?

I can’t find a reason to care about this book anymore, so after sixteen issues of reading it, I’m off.

How do I feel about the experience?

I feel like it was a waste of my time, and a waste of my money, but no hard feelings.

Oh well, that’s old Rick off my list then, let’s see if I can find a writer who has something to say, and is desperate, no matter what the cost, to say it.


Rating: 5/10 (A well constructed comic book, but ultimately, it’s pointless)