Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy of Outer Darkness #6 for review.
Written by John Layman, cover and interior art by Afu Chan
Issue #6 of Outer Darkness is apparently the mid-season finale, which makes all the sense in the world but really took me by surprise. I really love this series, and it’s going to be hard to wait even longer for new pieces of this story. There are just so many cool things happening, and I don’t want it to end. Regardless, this first arc comes to a close here and many loose ends are finally tied up.
After the events of Outer Darkness #5, I didn’t expect anything to go particularly well for Rigg and crew. There is another death in this book, which I’m still a bit sad about. Thankfully this is Outer Darkness where dead doesn’t always mean dead forever! It just means temporarily death with a change of returning to life tethered to a demon. Ya know, normal stuff.
Speaking of people tethered to demons, Sato Shin goes full on demonic in this installment, and it’s pretty fantastic. There are so many Big Bads popping in and out of the story that I’m starting to feel like it’s impossible for Rigg to ever succeed.
Rigg gets to make a lot of choices this time around. One of the choices he makes is to essentially not properly dispose of an arch-fiend. Even though he knows it will cause problems for a later generation, he really doesn’t care if he can keep his crew safe in the present. This moment says a lot about who Rigg is as a person and a captain. He’s obviously not the best person out there, but he’s not quite the worst either.
I continue to love the somewhat retro sci-fi vibes in the art style. The color choices and character design create a technicolor look that when juxtaposed with the gore and death of the plot make for a truly unique reading experience.
If I can encourage even a small hand full of people to pick up this book, I will be so so happy. I really enjoy this story of necromancy, math magic, and demons. I can’t wait to keep reading the 2nd half of this season!
If you missed my reviews of issue 4 and 5 of the series you can read them here, and check out all my other reviews and interviews here.
Outer Darkness #6 is set for release on April 10th, 2019.
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