No surprise that I am not the biggest fan of Dark Horse’s Blackout. It avoided issues that needed to be addressed and then stayed on topics that readers understood from the get go. But with being a micro series, I wanted to see if Blackout could end on a high note with the potential of the story being so high. Well I will clarify right here, that this issue was a little better, but with the overall four issues leaving me no smarter than just having to read the summary of this comic, it was all just a bust.Really all you need to know is that Scott has obtained this suit from a friend, Bob. Bob has disappeared all because of this suit. It can travel through dimensions allowing the user to pretty much enter a hole and stay hidden behind this curtain of dimensions. Scott now has to find out where Bob is and in doing so, he finds that he is fighting a lot more than just the battery level on his suit. See the premise of the comic is promising. I love the idea of jumping dimensions and entering these black holes. But since we have gotten nowhere closer to finding Bob, it all seems wasted.
Mechatronics is behind all of it. The suit and probably Bob’s disappearance, so I actually don’t care where Bob is. He is either dead or being brainwashed to give up his research. So instead I am left wanting Scott to leave the mystery alone and become a superhero always wondering where his Uncle went. That doesn’t happen either. He only fights Mechatronics leading him to no answers. Now I am left in limbo. This advances the plot nowhere, so even if Scott does some cool action sequences it has no end goal in mind. I would have hoped that he could have solved something before issue four was up.
Blackout, which I am sure will offer a lot in the next go around, fell short in its first micro. Without reading this series, you will have no trouble catching up when the next story comes out. I just think that comics need to hit with a bang right from the start. I know that some comics can build up these amazing pieces all to be revealed slowly, but lately if a comic can’t hit you with something then there is no point in starting to read it. Either a huge plot secret needs to come out or a subtle hint of reveals that unfold answers along with questions… questions we need to know the answer to. Blackout couldn’t do that for me with these four issues. Take a chance on the next installment, but be aware that the first doesn’t offer much than surface area.
Score: 3/5
Writers: Frank Barbiere, Randy Stradley Artists: Colin Lorimer, Dough Wheatley Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 8/6/13 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital