After the first issue of 50 Signal I couldn’t wait to dive into the second issue. To recap, it’s about an astronaut that’s basically been created from birth to be an explorer. Unlike others, our astronaut lives for the job. In the first issue though, our main character came up again something unexplainable and soon found themselves in a waiting room with other astronauts. We find our astronaut being bombarded by other astronauts. Apparently he can be understood by everyone in the room, but they can’t understand each other… only him. He begins communicating for them all, tell each other’s story to the room. There is one uniting event to each story, they all end with the exit door that brought our astronaut into the waiting room. It seems that they all went through the same door, but why did they stay?
There’s just too much going on in this story to tell you anymore. I really don’t want to ruin it, but there are some fascinating parts that influence the overall story. It almost feels as if we’re dealing with fate, parallel timelines and or reincarnation. Like I said, a lot.
The characters are fantastic. We not only get to know our main character more and figure out what they’re made of, but we do get to know a few of the other astronauts. They may not speak the same languages, but they all have something in common. The pacing of the story was great and the narration was spot on. Especially the ending which left me wondering if there would be more, if there needed to be more, but also wanting more.
The art has a great style and what I really enjoyed was that our astronaut was the only one to remove his helmet. Everyone else keeps theirs on, which makes them come across like robots more than anything else. I think that was partially the point, that they weren’t characters, but more like the furniture they were sitting on. The art is a great fit for the book and the final sequence of events was wonderful and creative.
It seems like there will be more of 50 Signal. I wouldn’t be upset by this, but I do think that these first two issues are pretty wonderful on their own. This story is strange, intentionally strange, but it’s entertaining because of that. There’s a still a bit of mystery to the world and I for one am looking forward to seeing where it leads.
Score: 4/5
50 Signal #2 Creator: Nick Gonzo Publisher: Madius Comics Price: £3.00 Format: Print Website