MYSTERY IN SPACE #1

Review by: kingdomofevan

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Written by Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Andy Diggle, Ann Nocenti, Paul Pope, Robert Rodi, & Rebecca Doyle
Pencilled by Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Paul Pope, Davide Gianfelice, Sebastian Fiumara, & Rebecca Doyle
Inked by Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Paul Pope, Davide Gianfelice, Sebastian Fiumara, & Rebecca Doyle
Lettered by Todd Klein & John Workman
Colored by Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Loverne Kindzierski, Dave McCaig, & Cristiane Duarte Peter
Cover by Mike Allred

Size: 80 pages
Price: 7.99

I wasn’t enthused about every story in last year’s Strange Adventures #1 anthology, but with creators like Brian Azzarello and Jeff Lemire in the mix, there was enough to hold my interest there. Now, almost exactly a year later, we have another sci-fi compendium to pore over, but why they didn’t just call it Strange Adventures #2, I have no idea. The new title certainly helps to dial down expectations, as it should, because this is nowhere near as good as Strange Adventures #1. Not even close.

Whereas the first anthology had a stronger mix of hard and soft SF, these stories focus heavily on obtuse metaphysical nonsense. We have a story about a race of centaur-people who have ritualistic fever dreams where their human halves fight their horse halves … or something. We have a tale of a flying woman on a planet of exotic and lethal animals that ends so abruptly I thought there were pages missing. There are a few standouts — Ming Doyle’s “Asleep to See You” is a pretty grounded story of literal star-crossed love, and Mike Allred’s “Alpha Meets Omega” is both gorgeous to look at and a shining example of this anthology’s stoner aesthetic.

To its credit, Mystery in Space brings together a diverse mix of art styles, from Kyle Baker’s rough cartoony style in “The Dream Pool” to Sebastian Fiumara’s sexy realism in “Contact High.” But in terms of storytelling, the balance between the pretty good and the really terrible is heavily tilted toward the latter. Not worth the eight dollars.

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 4 - Very Good

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