About Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy Issue 1
John Carpenter and Sandy King’s comic book company, Storm King Comics, has returned to the “Tales of Science Fiction” flagship title to carve out a creepy alien meets supernatural mini-series with this three-parter named ‘John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Envoy.’
In this first issue we’re taken deep into that corner of the brain where John Carpenter has lived rent free for decades thanks to science fiction horror films like Starman, The Fog and Prince of Darkness.
Although, the series is developed by Carpenter and King, this time around they take a back seat to writer David J. Schow, who brings artist Andres Esparza along for this eerie ride of ‘science meets supernatural’ comic book issue.
Reader beware: this article contains spoilers.
Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy Issue 1 Recap
Issue 1 opens the story by introducing us to computer genius Ben Raines who is holed up in his bunker which is right near an active graveyard. Here he acts as the audience surrogate to some degree by beginning to record a video about the sequence of events that have led to his current day – but not before mentioning his bunker is so high tech that it would survive a direct EMP attack. (I’m sure the relevancy will be explained in Issue 2 or 3 but we’ll let this slide for now)
With Ben narrating, we’re taken into the past tense where we meet his younger self and his college friend, Steven Allard, where the two make a pact that whoever makes a huge discovery first will then be owed a bottle of champagne by the other. The scene then shifts back to the present day where Allard is presenting a scientific report to his company’s board. A report in which he claims to have found the cure to cancer. A crack of lightning and a ferocious rain storm segways back to Ben in his bunker.
There, he starts to record the tempo of the storm and as he does so he looks out a nearby window to notice a dark and looking apparition which stands before him with no gaze, no look, no expression – just pure darkness. Almost as if this ghostly figure is the void itself and Ben is staring directly into it. Writer David J. Schow gives us little time to contemplate the meaning behind this unsightly behemoth as he disappears into the wind and in its place is nothingness and broken glass as Ben stares from outside his bunker into the storm.
This encounter, or hallucination, is swiftly interrupted by a call from Ben’s old college friend, Steven Allard, who said he’s made a big discovery. A discovery which, like they agreed upon, is deserving of that bottle of champagne they placed that bet on years earlier. Ben reluctantly agrees to a meeting and pretty soon the pair are squaring off inside Steven’s limousine. We learn here that while Steven pursued cures to the worst diseases like cancer, Ben, who lost his wife to cancer, has spent years since college in the attempts to make contact with the afterlife.
Steven, who says he’s found the cure to cancer due to a discovery he has made, shocks Ben and in disbelief agrees to see the proof of Steven’s “cure” at hand. On the way to Steven’s lab, they make a detour to a hospital and meet one of the patient’s there who is terminally ill from cancer, a woman who is eternally for the chance that Steven Allard is giving her to be a test subject in his miracle cure.
The pair continue on to Steven’s lab which is underground and under strict surveillance by highly trained security personnel. A matter which doesn’t surprise Ben in the slightest as he’s extremely skeptical of what Steven is about to show him. After meeting the scientists working in this underground lab, Steven makes the claim that they’re using technology to send messages into outer space and have made contact with an extraterrestrial species. The same species that has given Steven the secret to create this cure to cancer.
When Steven orders a demonstration, the machine that they’re using ripples to life and electrifies like a contraption out of Doctor Frankenstein’s menagerie of inventions. It then burns brightly and out of control – with no one in the lab able to stop it. When the dust settles, a lean, muscular and mouthless grey alien is there with the scientists, as they look on with shock.
The Envoy is here.
Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy Issue 1 Review
David J. Schow does a great job in creating an air of tension and suspense throughout all of Issue 1. The kind of tension and suspense that John Carpenter’s brand of science fiction and weird is known for. From the initial start we’re completely empathetic to character Ben Raines’ struggle of having lost his wife in the worst way possible. While at the same time penning a character like Steven Allard, who is the opposite to Ben; resilient, charismatic and a naturally born salesman. The kind of person who’s able to draw Ben out of his inner turmoil and into the fray where aliens and the great beyond are about to be explored.
While I’m not overly familiar with his work, artist Andres Esparza captures several moods within the pages of this first issue. Moods of a haunted house in the initial scenes where Ben Raines first encounters that hulk of an apparition to his meeting with Steven Allard in his limousine which is overly emotive and a touch triggering on both sides. Ride down to the electrifying entrance of the alien which appears on the very last page of this issue. If Esparza’s plan was to bring out the spookier vibes of a John Carpenter film in the pages of this comic book – then mission accomplished.
Issue 1 of Tales of Science Fiction: The Envoy is creepy, suspenseful, highly emotive and reaches into the darker recesses of the human psyche. It’s the blending of science with the supernatural which summons forth a paranormal being that makes this work of David J. Schow and Andres Esparza’s more than deserving of the “John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction” brand.
Have you read the first issue of John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Envoy?
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