Infinite Dark Vol. 1
Ryan Cady, writer; Andrea Mutti, artist; K. Michael Russell, colorist
Image Comics, 2019
Quite a high concept here: it is set on a space station named the Orpheus located at the end of the universe. Our universe has been consumed by heat death, so the station is intended to be a lifeboat for all of humanity, protected by a pseudoreality shield from the total darkness of complete entropy beyond the station's walls (the infinite dark of the title). It's probably just as well that the story doesn't go into too much detail explaining the science, since it would likely be incomprehensible anyway. Instead of being saviors the crew finds themselves sole survivors after none of the colony ships succeeds in outrunning the entropy wave and reaching the station. So there is understandably survivor's guilt, which Security Director Deva Karrell is struggling with. But she is thrown into investigating the Orpheus' first murder, which turns out to be much larger than mere guilt and depression. The station's technologists have become convinced that there is an entity outside the ship that regards it as a mistake. They go about trying to destroy the ship. Deva confronts the entity, which tells her that the Orpheus is preventing the start of a new universe by hanging on to a sample of the old one. So in addition to outer space sci-fi we have psychological horror and a metaphysical threat. The drama is effectively presented: Mutti is good at character design and facial expressions, and does what he can with action that takes place almost entirely inside the space station's halls. He cheats a little bit with the space views: total blackness is not visually interesting. But in the end I had so much trouble accepting the main conflict that I doubt I'll continue with the series.
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