Black Science #5 Review

Black Science #5 is the issue where the layers of the onion begin to peel back. Much is revealed and much is learned in this stellar issue in the series.

Official description from IMAGE:
Grant discovers the truth about the Pillar’s sabotage, tearing his team apart just as they are launched into a dimension of mad gravity and violent monkey ghosts! How do you survive insanity when you can’t trust anyone around you?

Writer Rick Remender is extremely deliberate in his story telling and Black Science just moved on to the next level. Like most Remender stories it’s usually a lot of confusion and a slow build-up to the first wave in his attack. I don’t point those out as bad attributes but it’s the nature of Remender’s design. In issue five of Black Science he moves readers in to the heart of the underlying slow burn and what he uncovers in this issue gets the blood pumping.

In the end of the last issue the Anarchist League of Scientists are recovering from losing members and trying to catch their breath. It’s momentarily peaceful with the just the slightest smattering of hope. The team’s Pillar is damaged and for the moment they are stuck in time. But Remender quickly takes that’s moment of peace and turns it into chaos. Someone is after Grant’s children and once the culprit is unmasked not only is Grant’s world torn apart but so is the readers. This issue answers a multitude of questions and gives readers and Grant’s team a better understanding of their universe damaging trips through time. It’s literally a stroke of storytelling magic and dare I say “genius” on Remender’s part. This issue will make the wait for issue six feel like an eternity!

Matteo Scalera’s art is just so good and incredibly engaging. His ability to render characters consistently makes one of the most shocking moments in the issue crystal clear without any written explanation. Not all artists have that touch and finesse but Scalera is masterful with it. The motions that are conveyed when a chase begins is quite simply amazing. Chase scenes rarely work in a static format but again Scalera’s skill makes it feel as though you are watching The French Connection! Great work.

It’s simple. Black Science is hitting it’s pace and moving from simply interesting and intriguing to being fully immersed. Issue five knocks it out of the park and if you haven’t jumped into this time travelling, sci-fi, action world Remender has created you are doing yourself a disservice and missing out on some of Remender’s best work to date. Black Science is the sci-fi tale we’ve been waiting for and it over delivers on quality and entertainment. Black Science is as smart and highly addictive as any comic in stores right now!