Infinite Dark Volume Two
Ryan Cady (writer), Andrea Mutti (illustrator), Troy Peteri (letterer), K. Michael Russell (colourist)
Top Cow Productions
September 4, 2019
In the first volume of Infinite Dark, security officer Deva Karrell has risked everything to save the remaining passengers of the Orpheus who are, in turn, the last survivors of humanity, after the other ships on this survival mission were destroyed. After two years of peace on the Orpheus, everything went to Event Horizon hell thanks to an entity intent on taking humanity on the necessary path to entropy so that new life can come from our death. Believing in the entity’s purpose, technolinguist Kirin Tal-Shi is imprisoned for their part, while Deva is only just waking up after weeks in a coma. Her efforts to save the Orpheus ought to have made things better, but she wakes to find that everything is breaking down, and worse, the board and her doctor do not believe this entity truly existed.
Nick Robles handles covers for this new arc of the series, focusing on Deva and the pressing darkness of space and reflecting the new threat set to complete the entity’s efforts—a shield that is beginning to crack. The survivors are faced with a decision of attempting to patch the shield in order to eke out a limping existence, or discover what lies beyond the void and either end humanity completely or bring about its evolution. Meanwhile, something continues to do the entity’s work, spreading discontent and mistrust throughout the populace.
Creator Ryan Cady has spoken about how experiencing and then pulling out of a dark time in his life has helped to shape this story, and those struggles certainly play out through Deva and her colleagues. When their struggles seemed to have found a solution, they end up deeper into the darkness. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from playing Mass Effect, it’s that, even in the face of annihilation, humans are just too damn plucky. Though some humans will do their best to make a situation far worse, there’s always a Commander Shepard willing to put everything on the line to pull it all together and get everyone working towards the greater good, often at great cost to themselves.
One of the themes that permeates throughout Deva’s characterization is her refusal to admit when she’s struggling mentally. It’s a relatable characterization, with many of us setting aside our own personal well-being in order to deal with a greater situation or to take care of others. Now, granted, Deva’s got the remainder of the human race to save, and she’s the only one willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do so, so I’ll give her some slack.
What Cady does remind us, narrowing the infinite darkness of space metaphor down to the personal darkness so many of us face on a daily basis, is that trusting in others is sometimes the only way to find the light on the other side. Somehow, despite the truly cold and isolating and desolate story Cady has crafted for humanity’s future, he manages to leave the reader with a sense of promise for a better tomorrow. Taking several science fiction and apocalypse tropes in hand, he carefully leads us down their tumultuous paths before subverting them into something surprisingly hopeful.
At times I did struggle with Andrea Mutti’s illustrations, finding it difficult to tell some characters apart due to their similar designs and excessive use of shadowing, but for the most part, his artwork upholds the sense of pending doom, fear, and isolation that permeates Cady’s storytelling. Mutti illustrates the monstrous creatures and their heinous acts with precision, but the horror comes less from their appearance than from the psychological terror creeping behind the Orpheus‘ plight.
Troy Peteri’s lettering is in full majesty in this book, and is actually what inspired my By the Letters series, which began with an interview with the Infinite Dark letterer himself. Peteri’s use of differing fonts, word balloons shapes, and unique special effect designs craftily but cleanly navigates the imagery. The balance of clean and carefully placed wording against often chaotic backgrounds is a soothing touch that helps maintain the reader’s focus.
As with the previous volume, this one includes “Dispatches from the Void,” where various creators share their relationships with the horror genre. These are insightful essays that approach the genre in many different ways from how a particular film shaped them, or how a personal experience or lifestyle fits the term in ways we might not have considered before.
When reading comics, there are often times when I can envision how a particular story might work well on the screen. After reading Infinite Dark, I both fear and desire seeing this story take shape in such a medium.
