Black Science #9

By Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera, and Dean White

Black Science continues in its strengths: Killer colors, brilliant character designs, and a brilliant cliff-hanger.  It seems more of a filler issue than anything else, though.  It goes into some light character development, but what’s interesting is that it gives us a glimpse into Rebecca, whom really hasn’t seen any of the spotlight.  The McKay children, Nate and Pia, stir up the main story with their quest to get back to the main camp.  Unfortunately, the story doesn’t really start to pick up until the last leg, giving us a big glimpse as to what’s around the corner.

Rick Remender slowed the pacing of the story down for this issue.  Some action scenes were thrown in, but Rick used this issue more to inform us of characters backgrounds and to build up to the ending of the issue.  The main story was barely touched upon which is a tad disappointing because things were getting quite intense.

Matteo Scalera keeps proving that he is quite adept at character design. Brilliant, frightening monsters prowl the pages of this issue. With all these brilliant creatures making their presence known, it makes you wonder how many more new designs Scalera can cook up. Dean White compliments this comic book very, very well.  His painted colors, once again, rule this comic book.  He manages to make even the most obscure object on the page stand out.  The monsters are vibrant, fun, and come to life thanks to him.  The combination of Scalera and White is not a force to be reckoned with.

There is a certain brilliance to the approach of this issue, though.  Saving a giant bombshell for the end, Rick certainly has a way with cliff-hangers.  Not quite the fill-a-buster it’s always been, but informative none-the-less.