Dark Matter #2
Publisher: Dark Horse
Writers: Jospeh Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
Artist: Garry Brown
Waking up on a spaceship, and not remembering who you are or what you’re doing there; that is having a bad day. Now, after the crew had a scuffle with an android, they are hit in the face with another ship bearing down on them. The other ship fires two missiles at them, and now it’s time to get serious. The android, who is now running the ship (after a quick reprogramming of sorts), tells them that there are two options. He can try and use their ship’s weapons, or try to evade the missiles. They vote for evading them, and the android uses the ship to go to “warp speed” or whatever they call it. They do outrun the missiles (actually, they shoot one down), and wind up in a far off galaxy. Here, the android uses the ship’s computers to locate life on a nearby planet. They land, and are greeted by humans that were colonists placed there years ago. The colonists are expecting another ship, though, and it’s one that is carrying a death squad that wants to wipe them out. Now the crew has a real decision. Stay and help or just give them some weapons and leave. The answer is not quite what you’d expect.
Alright, so, this issue let us in on some clues as to who these people are and why they were all on the ship together. I hope the writer goes into more character development, though, because I honestly don’t feel any connection to any of them. The story itself is good, but over all the book seemed slightly pedestrian due to that. The ending was very cool, though, and mostly because I didn’t see it coming. Maybe I just don’t read enough sci-fi books, or maybe the writer did a great job with that. Go pick this up, and you decide.
Artist Garry Brown did a serviceable job, and I don’t really have any complaints other than the fact that the book looked a little rushed. Again, this may just be his style, and not having checked out any of his work before, I could be wrong. The cover is exactly like the inside to give you an idea. He was the cover artist as well, so if you don’t like that, I wouldn’t recommend buying the book. I’m definitely going to see where this book goes based off of the last couple of pages. It was a good tease and, after all, it is only issue #2. Rating 3/5
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
