I couldn’t tell in the first issue if this comic was about to get real technical or be perfect for kids and adults to enjoy. I finally discovered in #2 that the comic is very two sided. I think that is why I haven’t fully jumped on board this ship. The biggest problem was the characterization. If you are going to dive into plot twist between villains and a completely new planet, you really ought to have a good base for all your different people, or in this case aliens. I think it would be hard for a young kid to fully understand everyone’s motivations or roles they are playing. The vocabulary is very high end too, so I couldn’t recommend this to kids. All of this would make it tough to label an all-ages book. Then you have this other side where the art appeals to kids. The colors are bright and just by judging this book by its cover, you would think this is a children’s series. Don’t get me wrong, I love books that have playful art to it, but when you add a space monkey, cutesy banter, and the bright art then you get a comic that visually appeals to the younger eye. As I have said, Spaced Out is a little confused on the path it is taking.

Let me tell you some things that were enjoyable. If you have just joined this comic this is a great jumping on point. The comic goes into some much needed background story on Bops, so that made me happy. We pretty much get thrown into this comic with issue #1. Bops and his sidekick Max are being chased. We don’t really know why, but as far as we can tell the main reason is because Bops is from a different planet. I don’t know when Bops picked up Max, but I would assume he met him in this new land. The first thing I liked about this second issue is the setting up of the team idea. At first, I thought Bops would be on his own, but he has assembled quite a team of characters.

This is where the background information helps. Bops is from Earth. He learned our language when being sucked into a wormhole on his first space mission. He landed on Tiklopis. His newly formed gang of friends is trying to get Bops back. Although I don’t know why he would want to go back and especially after being more humanized, I doubt our world would accept him as normal. We don’t know why these characters are helping Bops either. We get small remarks that Max is very loyal to him, but again we don’t know why.

Although I liked this issue better than the first one, I still haven’t seen that “hell yeah” factor that a space setting comic can give us so easily. I am hoping #3 will deliver on all ends. It seems like the series is building into something bigger. Also with the ending I am hoping it is foreshadowing some more background information, so the reader can fully grasp Tiklopis.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Brent Sprecher Artist: Ramon Salas Publisher: Blue Water Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 3/26/14