Several months ago, I had an opportunity to review Pale Dark #1. It's a sci fi/weird science yarn set on the backdrop of a space station and filled with the likes of Gestapo style prison guards/interrogators; meek and confused prisoners who have no real idea what is happening to them, an attractive female scientist who seems to be working on some special formula that the prisoners are having extracted from them in their blood. And of course, The Pale Man. He's the creepy head honcho in this space station of horrors and he seems to hold all the keys to everything. I got to review it, and I absolutely loved it. Reading it was a swirl of emotion as we were left with tons of questions and no answers as to why or what was happening to our hapless victims. It was good intensive fun that I highly recommended to anyone who will listen. Fast forward to today... it is with great pleasure that I tell everyone that the Pale Man is back! Back and just as creepy as ever as issue two has hit the shelves. This twisty ride is continuing and it still is quite good.
Nothing has really changed; our prisoners are still getting a royal Gestapo like beat down. Blood is still be extracted by the attractive female scientist, and the Pale Man is still menacingly lurking around pulling all the strings. Only this time, one of the prisoners, a babbling wildman named Spez, seems to have some rather interesting knowledge in the finer workings of the security systems of the station. He may even know a little bit more about what is going on, but of course, he is speaking some bizarrely cryptic rambling, that it is anybody's guess as to how much he truly knows. But where the first issue offered very little or no hope, the second has a glimmer of one. Or at least we think maybe a glimmer. The Pale Man seems to have a feel for everything at play. Only time will tell.
Writer Chuck Amadori and artist Ruvel Abril are still working to throw the reader off balance. We are very much like our primary protagonist, Subject K and the other prisoners; out in the dark and not knowing what the Pale Man and his thugs are really up to at all. It makes for some intriguing storytelling of what is being prepared to be a large scale epic spanning several issues. We have really just seen the proverbial tip of the iceberg and I know I for one am quite interested to see a little bit more.
Abril's art is kind of a mixture of sci-fi gothic. It is dark (especially the Pale Man), but with some colorful sci-fi elements. All in all it works as Almadori is working to unravel whatever mysteries are waiting for the reader to see as the story progresses.
I've read a whole lot of independent comics. Some good, some bad, some kind of indifferent. With Pale Dark, it is a solid "build up" one. Some foundation is being laid and inevitably the supports will follow making for an interesting story and solid read to be enjoyed.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Chuck Amadori Artist: Ruvel Abril Publisher: Isle 2 Price: $1.99 Website