Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Frank J. Barbiere, Randy Stradley
Artist: Colin Lorimer, Doug Wheatley
Release Date: 30th April 2014

Scott Travers has come into possession of a suit that allows him to create portals to travel from place to place. When he opens a hole and enters he is assaulted by extreme cold the only thing keeping him from freezing being the heated suit. He can see and hear everything going on around him but no one can see him. Scott is still on his search for his missing friend and boss Bob Marshall. Scott’s search for clues leaves him flirting with capture, while at Mechatronics some new suits have been developed that may not be able to travel through space but they pack punch of another kind.

I have become a fan of Frank Barbiere over the course of Five Ghosts, but this story is lacking. When I was reading the first issue for this series to become familiar with the plot, I thought I was reading the second issue. The story jumps right in with Scott having the suit already and having some bizarre nightmare that seems was actual events that had taken place. There’s no explanation of how he got the suit, what the suit actually is or why it was created. I understand there being questions but it just seems to me there are too many questions from the start, it makes it confusing and hard to really immerse in the story.

The artwork Colin Lorimer has developed for this story though not highly detailed I feel it fits the questionable story. Some of the characters are hard to distinguish from one another and the environments are very plain and not visually stimulating.

All in all I found the story while it’s an interesting concept to just lack strong story telling on both creative ends. In the story telling there’s just too many questions that are unanswered and that leaves the plot flat. And the lack of details and visual stimulation in the art make it hard to then capture the reader’s eye as well. While it’s not a horrible story it just didn’t grab my attention and let my imagination run wild.

Rating: 2/5.

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The writer of this piece was: Shane Hoffman (aka “Hoff”)
You can also find Hoff on Twitter.