UNIVERSE! VOL. 1 Hardcover (2021) Review
Summary: A great anthology of science fiction stories but with more heart than you get from a lot of "hard sci-fi" stories given the author's background in satire.
5
Spanish sci-fi ole!
Universe is an anthology of loosely connected stories but Spanish comic artist Albert Monteys most famous for his work on El Jeuves but these stories where originally published separately and have recently been released as the one volume as the author said they took a long time to come up with.
The tone reminds me of old time science fiction anthologies I used to find at random in the library but do not seem to as be as popular these days. There are a lot of influences on the stories from established tropes from Slaughterhouse Five, Interstellar, I Robot and other well-known science fiction.
I did enjoy the artwork and it does all seem to fit within the same universe and I zipped through reading this compared to taking months to read the equivalent in text format.
There are some interesting character designs even for things such as robots which have been done a lot by this point. Even the concepts behind the robots is well thought out with some more service-oriented and others who are just to provide support and cook.
Having worked for a satirical publication some of the punchlines in the stories continue this tradition, my favourite being the humble worker getting his own back on the mega-tycoon who wanted to own everything in the universe.
While I read this all in one go, it is easy enough to pick up and put down to come back later and keep reading if you want to stretch it out.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes science fiction stories, but wants something a bit different to the usual coldness that seems to permeate a lot of “hard sci-fi” with a bit more levity in some of the stories.
Comic details:
Writer/Artist/Cover Art: Albert Monteys
208 pages, colour
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Image
Published: January 20, 2021
Related Posts
MUTANT HISTORY IS UNLEASHED ON SCOTT KOBLISH’S X-MEN CONNECTING COVER →
Ultimate Black Panther 3 Review →
The Hobbit: A Graphic Novel Review →
