‘Outpost Zero: The Complete Collection’ TPB (review)

Written by Sean Kelley McKeever
Art by Alexandre Tefenkgi and
Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Published by Skybound / Image Comics

I will make this review easy for you and get started to the point.

Outpost Zero: The Complete Collection is a beautifully written and illustrated piece that will likely be celebrated as a cult classic.

Despite that acknowledgment, I did not like Outpost Zero.

It was mundane, dull, and a chore to read.

Welcome to Outpost Zero: the smallest town in the universe.

The people there work the land, go to fights every Friday night, and tuck their children into bed. But the Outpost is no place for dreams. To survive is ambitious enough.

As Alea and her friends graduate to adulthood under the artificial sky of a faulty biome on a frozen world never meant to support human life, tragedy strikes. And after the inexplicable suicide of her friend Steven, Alea searches for the reason why – and what she discovers will upend her world forever. Meanwhile, a devastating storm has trapped the Outpost under ice, threatening the entire community’s survival.

As the Planning Team ventures into the Frost to save the town, Alea and her friends uncover greater mysteries buried beneath the surface.

Outpost Zero has a pretty weighty set up and deals with serious issues such as anxiety, depression, and teen suicide.

McKeever’s prose is beautiful, engaging, and well-written. Tefenkgi and Beaulieu’s art is crisp, clean, and consistent.

However, what fails about Outpost Zero is that I like my science fiction to be fantastic.

Stories that reflect the typical day are pretty dull to me and remind me of the wrong-headed “Blue Sky” science fiction craze of Universal television in the mid-2000s when TV shows like Earth 2 and Caprica were nothing more than mundane soap operas dressed up in the garb of science-fiction.

For me, Outpost Zero was a burden to read, and even when the mystery was revealed after nearly 300 pages, I was already checked out, and I could have cared less.

I do understand why this book has a cult following.

However, this is not what I would choose as entertainment for myself. But obviously, a group of readers endeared to Outpost Zero.

Final Score: 2 out of 5