Comic Info
Comic Name: Void
Publisher: Titan Comics
Writer: Herik Hanna
Artist: Sean Phillips
Release Date: 2014
Welcome to Space!
A prisoner named John finds himself on a prison ship in crisis. The ship has passed through a meteor shower resulting in a hull breach and chaos. Life support is failing all over the ship and people are dying. Now, the ship’s captain Mercer has been pushed to the breaking point and has decided no one is to escape Goliath 01…and the fight for survival begins!
Written by Herik Hanna and illustrated by Sean Phillips, Void is a sci-fi fantasy graphic novel. The stand-alone story is published by Titan Comics and was released in an oversized hardback.
Void feels like a lot of sci-fi thrillers. The book borrows from stories like Sunshine, Alien, Event Horizon, and even The Black Hole. Though aspects of the story are derivative, the book holds up due to the stylish art of Sean Phillips. Due to aspects of the story a *****Spoiler Alert****** remains throughout this review.
Crazy yet?
The story attempts a trick ending. Throughout the story, you’re tied to John, a prisoner on the ship, and he’s fighting to escape the mad Mercer. It seemed obvious to me that Mercer and John were most likely the same person and the games played in the writing of the story seemed to be unnecessary. I think that for the story to work Mercer should have been seen and looked completely different like Tyler Durden in Fight Club or even something like The Picture of Dorian Gray…John might not see himself as the evil that exists inside Mercer. If we had seen a completely different looking Mercer, it might have been more believable.
The book’s art, however, manages to get past the story’s problems. I enjoy Phillips work on Fatale and it is nice to see him go in the opposite direction by headed to space. Phillips has a great rawness to his work that works with the coldness of space and the void which the story circles around.
Void is good but problematic. I don’t think the story works completely, but the art does. If you can enjoy the experience without dwelling on the plot clichés, you can enjoy this book. With a generally low price and a nice presentation, it isn’t much of an investment of time or money and worth the payout. Generally, I don’t put art over substance, but here, I can forgive Void for the transgression and enjoy the richness of space.
