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Review: ‘Black Science’ #5

Published

10 years ago

on

Grant McKay returns to center stage this month as Remender peels back the layers of this complex and pious bastard. As always the root of this month’s issue rests with the characters behind the team. However, the cracks in the entire foundation start to reveal their complexities as Grant is forced to face himself. This is the most exciting and damning chapter of “Black Science” to date.


WRITTEN BY: Rick Remender
ART BY: Matteo Scalera
COLOR BY: Dean White
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: April 2, 2014

I can’t imagine being a dimension-hopping scientist. You’d have to be one brilliant man, and you’d have to a certain type of asshole, at least according to Remender. Luckily he does a fantastic job at communicating these traits in Grant Mckay. It’s never a dull moment as Kadir recounts how he first met the smug young man who turned out to be his own damnation.

In a roundabout way, even the moments with the masked stranger are all about Grant. This is his series after all, and Remender reminds us that he has done this all before, as he will do it again. Yet, his actions puncture holes in the very fabric of reality. His callous actions threaten the destruction of countless lives. Most notably those of his children, who the masked stranger reminds him, are doomed to be killed by their father.

So in a comic filled with infinite possibilities the fleeting idea of fate somehow worms its way in to throw everything to shit. In a beautiful poetic moment, Grant tries to defy his fate by acting before thinking. Yet, something tells me that this issue of Black Science will be a lot more important than we’re lead to believe here. Something happens within these pages that creates and even more infinite set of possibilities for the narrative. Remender loves seeding ideas, and this will surely spell the beginning of the end for the entire team.

Matteo Scalera really has a lot of time to shine in this issue. He revels in a chase scene that sees our heroes cutting across a bustling alien marketplace and bookends everything with two very senseless acts of violence. It all flows tremendously well and comes to reinforce the frantic pace that was previously established in the first issue of the series. The attention to detail in the characters is beautiful and Scalera really has a lot of fun with the design of the masked stranger.

Yet again, Remender and his team do an incredible job at building their world outward to create a memorable and engaging adventure that never stops to catch it’s breath. The characters while despicable almost across the board are engaging and intoxicating. So watching Grant become his own biggest saboteur is nigh impossible to resist. The onion keeps getting peeled back, and with every new layer comes a multitude of questions. I couldn’t be happier with this book. My only complaint is waiting a month between chapters.

Rating: 4.5/5 Skulls.

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‘The Toxic Avenger’ Returns with Cover Artwork for First Issue of New Comic Book Series [Exclusive]

Published

3 days ago

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May 13, 2024

By

With a remake on the way and a new 4K restoration of the original classic now streaming, it’s a good time to be a fan of Troma’s The Toxic Avenger. Additionally, Matt Bors — the founder of The Nib and a political cartoonist who has twice been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist —and acclaimed artist Fred Harper (Snelson) are collaborating on an all-new 5-issue comic book series starring the satirical superhero of the Troma Films cult classic films!

TOXIC AVENGER #1 will land in stores on October 9, 2024.

While you wait, you can exclusively check out the issue #1 cover art from Fred Harper below, along with a set of emojis designed by Harper for the extremely online teens of Tromaville.

“The Toxic Avenger delivers what Troma fans want,” said AHOY Comics Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “The series has violent action, gross mutations, bursting pustules, eye-popping visuals, and trenchant humor.” 

“If there was ever a superhuman hero for these toxic, miserable times, Toxie is the one!” said Lloyd Kaufman. “Only AHOY Comics and Bors & Harper could pull this off…er…mop this up! Toxie and the Troma Team can’t wait ‘til you read -no, experience – the art and stories that the Toxic Avenger Comic Book will explode in your brain, your soul, and your heart. Above all, remember – Toxie loves you and so do I.”

“This series will combine elements of the original films with the Toxic Crusaders cartoon and characters in familiar ways, updated to tell a story of environmental devastation, corporate control, and social media mutation,” said Bors. “The Toxic Avenger is first and foremost an environmental satire, one about a small town and its unremarkable people trapped and transformed by circumstances they don’t control. The story Fred Harper and I are telling is about people frustrated by authorities telling them not to worry about their life, that things are fine, even as their dog mutates in front of their eyes. And at its core it is about a powerless boy, Melvin, who finds out he can be incredibly strong, hideously mutated, well-admired, and incredibly heroic… but still ultimately powerless over human behavior.”

In The Toxic Avenger, teenager Melvin Junko helps run his parent’s junkyard in Tromaville, a small town in New Jersey where nothing much ever happens — until an ill-timed train derailment of toxic waste transforms Melvin into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength: the Toxic Avenger!

Under a media blackout imposed by Biohazard Solutions (BS) and their PR-spewing Chairwoman Lindsay Flick, Melvin emerges as a hero fighting against BS and the mutated threats that keep popping up around Tromaville.

Eventually Melvin uncovers a vast conspiracy more far-reaching than he could have ever imagined — but he knows if everyone is simply made aware of the crisis, they’ll act to stop it. Right?

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