What waits for us in the dark?
Jumping straight out of the pages to Matt Adcock’s novel of the same name, Complete Darkness tells a story about the accidental mapping of Hell - and what comes with it.
Taking place within the city of London 2, in the year of 2242, scientists have been attempting to map the elusive dark matter particle. Upon finally succeeding, these scientists soon discover - much to their horror - that they’ve discovered the realms of Hell and that it’s all around us. However, in looking inwards, the Devil is able to look out and as such the demon has decided to lay waste to humanity. Yet in his own hubris, the Devil has granted supernatural powers to an ordinary human. Now with the power to fight back against their extinction, humanity’s fate rests on the shoulders of Cleric 20.
Matt Adcock kicks issue #1 off by setting the stage and introducing us to the movers and shakers of the Complete Darkness chess board. A lot of the issue deals with our protagonist Cleric 20, alongside his robotic companion Gix. It’s through this viewpoint we get to see the cause of the MacGuffin that causes all the issues within the world - the Starlight Bounce. The phenomenon is quite interesting as it fundamentally allows history to be replayed in the present day. This then alters pre-existing historical events, and changes humanities understanding of their own past. It’s quite a brutal slice of history as we see some ancient tribesmen battle a band of futuristic looking monsters. As the violence escalates in the past, the future scientists rub their hands with the wealth of information thats coming through. However, things get to a crux as something - or someone - sends a message “When the day of carnage comes, I will find you”
Heading into issue #2 and the narrative takes a jump forward in time. Here and we’re solely in the future as Adcock maps the beginning chapters to the novel source material. With “Hell” being mapped, the powers that be decide to crack down on everyone involved with the Starlight Bounce. As such the scientists involved are stating to meet grizzly ends in an effort to keep their findings from getting out. It’s full on action as Adcock takes us across the deadly assault on the Dark Matter Collaborations offices. As the carnage unfolds we’re also introduced to our antagonists who’ve orchestrated the entire massacre in an effort to bring forth the “day of carnage”.
It can’t be an easy task to adapt a novel into the comic book format, yet Mat Adcock has done a fantastic job so far. While I’ve not experienced the Complete Darkness novel, I can imagine that house who have will get a real kick out of the series so far. The cyberpunk world of London 2 is a gorgeous mixture of Blade Runner’s L.A., Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City, and dare I say 2000 AD’s Mega-City One.It’s also an environment thats beginning to be fleshed out as the world ends around it. Adcock gives us a lot of exposition that sells what life is like in L2 for the average citizen, while throwing in his wider narrative around it all. Considering the depth we’ve already seen such as augmented reality, and the infamous Starlight Bounce, there’s plenty of inspiration here to expand upon once the main narrative reaches its conclusion.
Art comes from Karl Brown whose black and white style perfectly fits the sci-fi aesthetic. Every scene is packed with a great attention to detail which highlights character emotions, while building a believable world. It very much reminds me of what Phil Winslade is currently doing with Lawless - which isn’t a bad thing at all. For issue 2, Brown throws in a little colour to his monochrome style to great effect. The flashes of colour don’t detract from the line work, yet gives plenty more depth to the proceedings. The only thing that’s a bit of an odd choice is a full colour two-page spread that seems out of place. But it does serve as a break from the action, before throwing you back into it come the next page.
Overall and the Complete Darkness comic adaptation is already setting itself off to a good start. Within just two issues, Matt Adcock has delivered an action packed sci-fi that’s being powered by a very unique and strong storyline. While we’re yet to delve fully into Cleric 20’s role, he’s already being touted as a troubled individual whose elevation to humanity’s saviour probably isn’t going to go down well. But this is something to explore in future episodes.
For now, if an engaging sci-fi story that’s backed up with a stellar display of black and white art is your thing, then Complete Darkness is a comic I’d highly recommend.
And if like me, you’re impatient for the next issue. There’s always the novel to dive into!
Rating 9.5/10
Compete Darkness is available now and can be purchased by clicking here.
Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow us on X/Facebook @GeekCultureRev, TikTok/YouTube @Geekculturereviews, and BlueSky @geekculturereviews.bsky.social
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