Written by John Layman
Drawn by Afu Chan
Published by Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment

PREVIOUSLY: Outer Darkness #1

Captain Riggs hates cats. That’s one of the first things we learn about him this issue, although we’re not given any specific reason why. But I also hate cats for no particular reason, so it just makes me like this character even more.

We meet some of the rest of the members of The Charon’s crew, an eclectic mix of humans and aliens, and I like that the human members happen to be ethnically diverse which makes sense since it’s the future. Riggs meets the rest of his command crew and expresses his desire to test them in order to see exactly how they handle dangerous situations. And he does this be deliberately flying them into the heart of an extremely dangerous star system run by a “Demi-Satan.” As ghostly appararitions and “blood demons” begin appear on the ship, First Officer Alastar Satalis leaps into action and starts directing the crew to protect the ship. The follow sequences give us the chance to see the crew in action and observe how they use a mix of advanced science and arcane rituals in their defense. Needless to say, when the dust settles, Captain Riggs has not exactly endeared himself to his new crew, with some considering him to be a suicidal maniac and some flat-out threatening to kill him. Yet Riggs calmly takes it all in stride.

Once again writing John Layman throws a dozen different weird concepts at us one after another, and luckily his co-creator Afu Chan is more than capable of illustrating the madness. Like the first issue I find finishing this with a million questions, yet I don’t feel unsatisfied. The biggest question now is if Riggs is a madman or a genuis, and will his crew kill him before we have a chance to find out? All I know is that so far this is one of my favorite new series, and I can’t wait to see what craziness comes next.

A+

Outer Darkness #2