It’s the end of the world as we know it, and the characters in Top Cow’s “Infinite Dark” feel anything other than fine. Readers well-versed in any one of a number of science fiction tales dealing with the cataclysmic fallout from humanity’s near extinction will find the first issue in this series full of the familiar hallmarks of doomsday scenario stories. Luckily, Ryan Cady is savvy to that fact and infuses this new series with elements from horror, mystery, and thriller genres. But does this mashup dealing with extinction by heat death suffer from its own storytelling entropy or does it find enough energy from other genres to propel the narrative and find order in the chaos?
Written by Ryan CadyCover by Andrea Mutti
Illustrated by Andrea Mutti
Colored by K. Michael Russell
Lettered by Troy PeteriThe universe ended, but onboard the void station Orpheus, a skeleton crew of humanity survived: the last two thousand souls, waiting for a second big bang that may never come. Now, two years into their voyage, Security Director Deva Karrell investigates the station’s first murder-and the otherworldly motives behind it.
As readers might probably guess, “Infinite Dark” is not an operatic space fantasy. It’s a hard science fiction tale dealing with the harsh realities of the end of existence as we know it. Bleak stuff. Oftentimes these stories, cold by design, struggle to find a tangible and relatable emotional hook that doesn’t just rely on the fears associated with survival. Immediately, Cady gives readers a tether to hold by introducing us to Deva Karrel. She’s the Security Director on the Orpheus, a station designed to sustain 15,000 people in the event of, well, the event that arrives a little ahead of cosmic schedule, and she’s still dealing with survivor’s guilt two years after her station’s purpose was largely rendered moot. It’s a clever storytelling technique to begin with Deva and make her the focal point of the book as she’s clearly an empath. She’s also prone to philosophical musings about what her station has become—a floating tomb, not unlike the pyramids of old, a technological marvel that now seems destined to become an unwieldy relic. She’s haunted by the passengers on the transports that could not reach the station before they were destroyed en route, and faced with the fact that she is now charged with the safety of the last 2,000 humans, she realizes that her role as head cop has now become something more.
Karrel’s character grounds the book in a way that cannot be overstated, and we are meant to relate most strongly with her and see the story through her eyes as the narrative swerves into the mystery genre. The tech director of the Orpheus, Alvin Scheidt, has gone off the reservation and has abducted his neighbor, Jalil Evanson. When Karrel and her crew track the two men down in a largely shuttered section of the massive station, Cady’s story rapidly takes on an immediacy belied by the issue’s beginning and piles on the remaining genre conventions of thriller and horror that will leave readers clamoring for the next issue. It’s a clever bit of pacing from Cady that he’s able to create such a resonant cliffhanger so quickly within the cold confines of Orpheus, a station that is now a de facto civilization being run by an ad hoc corporate structure. While there are no overt hints that the other two directors of the station have any particular malevolent intents, they are essentially company people with well-defined skill sets. For now, those characters remain one-dimensional, but readers should expect more friction between them and the more philosophical Karrel as the events of the series unwind. For the station’s sentient AI, Cady takes his cues from more recent and nuanced depictions to give readers the appearance of a true (albeit disembodied) character, and most of the book’s spartan and infrequent light notes come from it. This is no Hal from 2001.
Speaking of 2001, the book does not share its sterility either. While there is largely a coldness in the initial tone, it is in contrast to the book’s aesthetic. There is a grime and lived-in look to the station that is more inline with the look of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise. Andrea Mutti’s linework is like a cross between European-influenced delicacy and Gabriel Hardman-like ruggedness. Mutti’s facial and figure renderings are more grounded in reality rather than exaggerated, but the final pages reveal Mutti’s willingness to create real dynamism by playing with Mignola-esque shadow and departing from the issue’s initially parallel and perpendicular panel layouts. These final pages really turn the book on its ear, taking what at first appeared to be a largely procedural affair touching on themes of alienation and human nature to something more violently menacing.
Continued belowIn the book’s back matter, Cady reveals that the book was born out of some of his own personal anxiety, and within this metatextual context, that’s easy to see. “Infinite Dark” plays on fears that we share about the certainty of our own mortality by cranking those anxieties surrounding the unknown to the right. What is worse than the finality of death? Is survival of our species worth the horrors that we may face in its preservation?
For now, the only quibble with this initial offering (and it’s not an insignificant one) is that it doesn’t seem to be sure what it wants to be, and that’s probably the result of the fusion of one too many divergent genre conventions. Without spoiling the reveal in the issue’s climax, the book could evolve into something conventionally scary but ultimately forgettable or something that forces readers to face their own deep-seeded fears. Unfair or not, and more than other series beginnings I have read recently, the judgment of this first issue seems more dependent on the subsequent issues than perhaps it should. I’m willing to give Cady and Mutti the benefit of the doubt after this solid setup issue though. It’s certainly intriguing enough to see where it goes from here. In that respect Cady, Mutti, and company have certainly done what a good premiere issue should do, and I have high hopes for the rest of what they have in store.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – “Infinite Dark” #1 may leave its readers in the dark as to what is actually going on by the end of this first issue, but that’s certainly not a bad thing.
