Broken Frontier

Captain Comet makes a grisly find as he discovers he really is his own worst enemy while The Weird’s error of judgment has serious repercussions.

Starring Captain Comet and The Weird in two serials per issue, Mystery in Space continues to breathe new life into DC’s science fiction heroes in much the same way that DC is doing with its supernatural stars in Tales of the Unexpected. The two stories in this book, however, are connected in more than just tone.

The mysterious, related rebirth of both heroes in the first issue set up their continuing adventures on the commercial city-satellite Hardcore Station, a kind of cross between Judge Dredd’s Mega-City One and Babylon 5. Comet’s investigation into his death and rebirth has led him to the Church of the Eternal Light Corporation and their sinister plans to create a warrior army of clones created from the corpse of his original body.

In the backup story, The Weird’s quest for enlightenment has also led him to the Church, but as a convert rather than an adversary. In this fifth issue of this 8-issue limited series, the two stories are beginning to converge, with more links between the two characters becoming apparent with each passing month.

Starlin succeeds in putting the mystery back into Mystery in Space. Not just the multi-layered plots regarding the villainous Church of Eternal Light but also the mysteries behind Comet’s rebirth and how it all ties in to The Weird’s origins.

With a number of cameos from, literally, across the DC Universe, it looks like DC is hoping to use this book as a springboard for some of their underused sci-fi concepts. Apart from the feature stars, we’ve seen returns for Hardcore Station, the Darkstars, Vril Dox of L.E.G.I.O.N. and, briefly, Star Hawkins. There’s a refreshing lack of controversy with how this has been handled. Starlin effortlessly revamps and revitalizes his heroes without resorting to rebooting or replacing them.

Jim Starlin himself is responsible for the art on The Weird strip. This is masterful storytelling that plays with convention by having The Weird moving in and out of the panels of his own story and directly addressing the readers. Sometimes this narrative trick can become quickly self-indulgent and tiring but Starlin employs it with a sensible level of restraint here, making it all the more effective. It’s worth picking up this issue for Starlin’s pencils alone.

Shane Davis and Matt Banning’s art on the main Captain Comet feature is quite wonderful. Davis is excellent at giving Hardcore Station its futuristic, high-tech atmosphere. His actions scenes are also suitably epic, providing the required big-budget sci-fi feel to the proceedings. As for his dramatic shots, Davis always elicits the right reaction in the reader; whether it’s horror at the gruesome discovery of Comet’s corpse or a sense of awe when the hero mentally communes with an alien life form in a marvelously evocative full-page piece.

This is, without a doubt, Jim Starlin’s best mainstream work in years. It underlines just why he has that reputation as the master of the cosmic comic. If the seemingly never ending glut of Infinity-series in the 1990s made you lose faith in his writing then pick up Mystery in Space and prepare to be reconverted.