hits its stride, that sense of episodic detachment gels into an ensemble story of the Charon’s crew and their journey into the void. The series treats focuses on the Charon’s long term journey rather than tight plot-work, which can leave some issues feeling un-moored upon first reading. The only element of Outer Darkness Vol 1 that didn’t knock me off my feet was its pacing. It’s a fantastically executed combo that captured my interest and drew me in throughout the volume. This brings the series closer to the adventurous heart of classic space exploration series like Star Trek, but with enough viscera thrown in to keep Event Horizon and Doom close to mind. Rather than helpless astronauts in over their head, the crew of the Charon treat demonic possession as just another hazard of space travel. While space faring sci-fi has explored the demonically supernatural before, Outer Darkness Vol 1. brings new energy to the genre. And when you die, your soul hurtles away from your body and into the Outer Darkness, as an apt a name for the absolute unknown of space as you can get. Spaceships run on the captured essences of Old Gods, primordial beings are powered by blood sacrifice. The book takes place in a universe where science and mysticism work together in a symbiotic partnership. The co-creator of Eisner Award-winning Chew churns out crazy genre mashups that just work, and Outer Darkness Vol 1. is no exception. If there’s one thing writer Layman has in spades, it’s imagination. And of course the crew of the Charon hold secrets of their own. Space is a dangerous place with all of the ghosts and ancient demons roaming around. That is if they don’t tear each other apart first.
The space beyond the known galaxy where only the dead reside, the Outer Darkness, holds many mysteries for the crew of the Charon. The book follows Captain Joshua Rigg, commander of the Charon, on a nine-month deployment into the outer darkness. Those questions follow in Image Comics‘ Outer Darkness Vol 1, written by John Layman with art by Afu Chan.
Yet we still dream of that imagined place and wonder what lays beyond the stars. No longer bound to Earth, the afterlife was cast out into the vast void of the unknowable. But as humanity grew, so did our understanding of the sky and the stars that lay beyond it. We used to think the afterlife resided in the sky.
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