Doxta mercilessly torments Grant in Black Science No. 40
As the finale of Black Science closes in, things start to really ramp up
In case you haven’t been following along, Black Science is currently Rick Remender’s longest running comic, with Deadly Class closing in quick. At forty issues, it contains a multitude of worlds, as we follow along the story of Grant McKay, a scientist who creates a way to travel through alternate realities with unintended effects, namely the destruction of billions of parallel universes. With art from Mateo Scalera, colors from Moreno Dinisio, and lettering from Rus Wooton, Remender’s script has taken us to worlds of magic, technology, and everything in between, culminating in one final universe ruled by a reality-warping witch and the showdown that inevitably had to happen, the classic framework of good versus evil.
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Sometimes Black Science isn’t the kindest read out there
In the last issue, Grant and Sara were rescued by their now-extended family, and they banished Kadir and Chandra, his assistant/lover, as they worked on a plan to defeat Doxta, an evil witch with the power to control reality. This issue starts out with Kadir and Chandra forging their way on their own, gathering supplies from a mall and planning to counter whatever Grant intends to do regarding Doxta, putting Kadir’s arrogance on display. Grant assembles his family, including Krolar the troll and a shaman from a futuristic dimension, under the auspices of the Anarchist League of Scientists, heading to free a prince with the power to consume Doxta’s dark energies. With Prince Kor restored to his former self, the crew heads to Doxta’s headquarters, where Grant is forced to relive his father’s suicide due to the witch’s powers, as well as some imagined guilt from his mother. Doxta then shows Grant that he seemingly killed his wife, which is devastating both for him and for the reader, who should have long been cheering on their reconnection. Black Science pulls no punches.
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Black Science went so hard they had to add an extra issue to finish the story
As if everything Grant was just forced to experience wasn’t bad enough, Doxta plays perhaps her cruelest trick by allowing Grant to think that the League defeated her, with everyone all happy and celebratory, only for that vision to be pulled away, leaving Grant on his knees in front of the witch, with his family impaled on spikes all around him. This seems to fully break him, and Black Science has been breaking Grant for a long, long time. Doxta does a villain monologue but, before she can end Grant’s life, Kadir and Chandra show up, theoretically with some master plan to fix everything. Kadir has been a scumbag for a long time, but defeating Doxta would do a lot for his redemption arc. Remender previously stated that this story would wrap up at issue No. 42 but, apparently, whatever he concocted required an additional issue. So now there’s three more climactic issues to bring all threads together.
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Mateo Scalera is some kind of genius; his art looks like nothing else out there today. It’s passionate and vibrant, while still able to get the subtleties of loss and grief across fantastically. Dinisio is a color auteur, and Remender is really at the top of his game here. 10/10, highly recommended. Let us know what you thought in the comments section below.