Written and Illustrated by Albert Monteys
Published by Image Comics
Just as the universe is vast and endlessly complex, so is the book Universe!. And it’s only Volume ONE!
Well, okay, I guess 208 wide angle pages isn’t all that vast but those pages are deep.
In fact, they’re so deep that one has to pay more attention to the story than one does in most other comics or graphic novels. It’s an anthology but with crossovers and in spite of an abundance of humor, it’s actual real science fiction, mixed with some heavy concepts and a dash or two of cynical philosophy.
The book’s first story is about time travel and corporate greed. The second is about problems with the ultimate robot companions. The third is about one man meeting a new alien species that no one else sees. The fourth ties together elements of one and three in what can only be called the weirdest sex story ever. And finally, the fifth (with ties to the first), my favorite, is an ultimately sad tale of a woman who comes out of synch with time and her husband, who comes up with a way to exploit that.
The creator, writer, and artist of the Eisner-nominated Universe! is Albert Monteys, a Spanish artist with a humor background. If I had to come up with a parallel for the art, I’d say that at times it at least evokes Keith Giffen during his best period on the Legion of Super Heroes. Once again, the use of color for effect and not just background is unfailingly clever and creative and adds immensely to the overall look and feel of the book.
As far as the writing, I recently compared one of the items I reviewed to the intelligent TV scripts of Black Mirror and I believe that comparison works here as well. Story after story seems a smart new twist on things that never even necessarily had an OLD twist!
Has all this been done before? My background in prose science-fiction isn’t what it used to be so I could be wrong but to me there were at least half a dozen original concepts here, all developed in ways I never saw coming.
At the back of the book are some pages with a cartoon Monteys giving a history of his Universe! that are done in a welcoming cartoony style probably akin to his more traditional Mad-style work.
I came in not knowing what to expect and I came out the other side wanting more. In that way, I guess the comic Universe! is kind of like our real universe.
Booksteve recommends.
