Creators: Charlie Brooker & Annabel Jones
Story: Charlie Brooker & William Bridges
Writer: Neil Gibson
Artist: Silvano Beltramo
Colorist: Agnese Pozza
Letterer: Rob Jones
Cover Artist: Billy Butcher
Publisher: Twisted Comics
Hardcover Price: £25; $32.99 US; $44.99 Canada
When Captain Daly reaches the bridge, he finds his ship in crisis. Valdack has returned. And this time, he's loaded for bear. By utilizing the firepower of his stolen Gorgon Dreadnaught, Lieutenant Walton believes their longtime foe can easily destroy them. Will Valdack reduce the USS Callister to atoms? Or can Captain Daly turn the tables on the villain who holds the Plasmorthium Crystal? Let’s grab our phasers, leap into Black Mirror: USS Callister HC, and see!
Story
Captain Daly commands a capable crew. Kabir Dudani’s scanners feed him information about their enemy. Tulaski maintains the shields and operates the ship’s weaponry. Nate Packer takes the helm, while Lieutenant Lowery attends the comms. While they’re capable, the crew looks to Captain Daly for direction. And as any wrong decision could allow a villain like Valdack to destroy them, they rejoice in each victory. The female officers express their gratitude to their hunky captain for saving their lives, while the fearful, indecisive Lieutenant Walton is in awe of his commander.
In Black Mirror: USS Callister HC, Robert Daly is a man of two worlds. In one, he commands a Federation spaceship, protecting the cosmos from villains like Valdack. In another, he serves as the Chief Technical Officer of Callister Inc. His coworkers avoid him and snicker as the sullen man walks by. But change is on the horizon. Nanette Cole surprises Robert when she bursts into his office on her first day at work. As she introduces herself, Nanette explains that Robert is the reason she wanted to work at Callister Inc. His programming abilities inspired her to follow in his footsteps in building massive multiplayer VR games.
But in Neil Gibson's story, Nanette gets more than she bargains for when she meets her hero. Robert Daly avoids his coworkers. He listens in doorways, and one coworker has reported him for staring. Nanette may be the newbie at the company. But when she discovers what Robert hides from everyone else, she'll fight a desperate battle to escape his dominance, and alert the outside world to the danger he represents in Black Mirror: USS Callister HC.
Art
The USS Callister hurtles through space like a flying wing. Captain Daly's eyes and pearly whites shine as the muscular blond strides onto the bridge clad in gray clothes and a red jacket. Valdack’s stolen ship resembles a green insect in space. While Dudani sits at his station and watches the viewscreen, he receives reports via his glowing headgear. Lines and dots surround panels when an impact rocks the bridge crew.
Agnese Pozza imbues scenes involving the USS Callister with a four-color comics feel. When Robert returns to his day job, Silvano Beltramo’s art enjoys a richer tapestry. Robert frowns and looks down as he walks through a dark green and blue lobby. Like his gray clothes, scenes inside the company receive grays and darker tones. Workers interact and attend to their duties while gamers gaze up at the ceiling from their recliners, their eyes as white as the disks on their foreheads. But when Nanette picks up a VHS case, she notices a brightly colored poster featuring the crew from Robert's favorite TV series in Black Mirror: USS Callister HC.
While Rob Jones places black uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons, other bridge officers utter lowercase words. Words shrink for lowered voices and grow bold for intonation, while blue-skinned Tulaska’s utterances appear as small, squeezed-together uppercase letters. Music notes accompany a worker’s multitasking. Sound effects enhance battles and accidents that reinforce Robert's view of a world that’s out to get him. Thanks to Twisted Comics for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
A science fiction TV series encouraged Robert Daly to become a hero. But as he grew up, others took advantage of him. Instead of rising above his trials to protect others, he withdrew from society. Robert has achieved career success and even inspired a younger generation to emulate his accomplishments. Yet he still feels like a boy beset by schoolyard bullies. Holding onto pain and withdrawing from society transforms Robert Daly into an unhappy man desperate to control others in Black Mirror: USS Callister HC.
Rating 9.8/10
To look inside, and learn more about the writer and publisher, see my Kickstarter announcement for Black Mirror: USS Callister TP.
To order this book, visit the Twisted Comics page.
To register for their next Black Mirror TP, visit the Kickstarter page for Black Mirror: San Junipero.
To get a shot at being drawn into Black Mirror: San Junipero, visit the Black Mirror Comics' competition page.
Follow Black Mirror Comics and Neil Gibson on Instagram:
@blackmirror.comics (BLACK MIRROR COMICS SOCIALS
@ngtwistedcomics (NEIL GIBSON COMIC PAGE)
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