Black Cloak #1 Review: Stellar Sci-Fi Mystery Sinks Its Hooks In

There's a divide at the heart of Black Cloak #1. The artwork alludes to it early, juxtaposing a scenic mermaid enclosure with the vandalized wall cordoning it off from the rest of the city. It exists in the architecture of Kiros, where events unfold. It's clear in the rift between those living in the city's heights and those below. It's there in the word "should," described within the issue by one character as an "ugly word." It's the divide between how things should be and how they are, between the way things were and the way things are supposed to be now. That divide is opened like a wound when a double murder threatens to rip the city apart.

The Black Cloaks' job is to bridge that divide by applying the city's laws to all within its walls. One Black Cloak, Phaedra, has crossed the divide. She's a former member of the royal family of elves who live on the upper levels overlooking the city (though only the picturesque parts are in view). She's now lived as an exile from that family for 20 years following a Buddha-like Great Departure. Now she works as a Black Cloak detective.

It's both fortuitous and unfortunate that she and her partner, Pax, should get the call to investigate a dead body found in a flophouse above a bar in an unsavory part of town. The victim is Prince Feral, perhaps the most popular individual in the city and, at one time, the person Phaedra would have married if she hadn't left. The investigation forces Phaedra to confront the life she left behind to find justice for the dead and prevent the crime from becoming a flashpoint.

Image Comics has billed Black Cloak as a new series for fans of Saga, and that proves true in its setting and artwork. Black Cloak is a science-fantasy story. More specifically, it seems to be a fantasy world transitioning into sci-fi. Magic-powered technology exists, and myriad different types of humanoids populate Kiros. While there are humans and standard-issue elves, they live shoulder-to-shoulder with centaurs, satyrs, and lamias.

Artist Meredith McClaren crafts an inviting aesthetic with her artwork and colors. The latter, especially, is reminiscent of Saga, with its flat application of a subtle palette of soft blues and earthy tones. With her figures, McClaren varies her linework, going thick and heavy for outlines and much finer for interior details. It helps the characters to stand out against the background while giving the page a clean, cohesive sheen, though some panels lacking much detail leave the characters looking a bit shapeless.

The creative team puts Black Cloak #1's triple-length page count to good use. The extra pages allow for Phaedra to reconnect with the various characters who will, presumably, play a role in the story to come and establish their relationship through entire scenes without having to stretch the process out across three issues or resort to captions designed for information dumps. Outside of some scene-setting on the opening splash page, Black Cloak avoids captions entirely, opting for the lighter, dialogue-heavy approach.  This could still become tedious if not for writer Kelly Thompson's proficiency in this style. Thompson keeps things snappy with witty banter that doesn't bury the characters' distinct personalities or feel like it's competing with the plot for the reader's attention. 

Where the issue does struggle in its depictions of the Black Cloaks, borrowing heavily from police procedural tropes that cast them as fantasy cops. Thus, it succumbs to some of the same pitfalls as that genre. The royals resent the Black Cloaks because they don't believe they should have to submit to any outside authority. The rest of the city also resents the Black Cloaks and it's less clear why.

That's because Black Cloak #1 spends all of its time with Phaedra and Pax, who seem genuinely good-natured. They do things by the book, want to apply the law equally to all, only flex their authority when the need justifies it, and go out of their way to aid those in need whom they encounter in their investigation. Should readers assume this is the norm? Are they the exception to the rule? It's unclear, as is how much we should assume about the Black Cloaks based on our understanding of real-life law enforcement. Since we have no other Black Cloaks to compare Phaedra and Pax to, the standoffish citizenry seems unjustified in their knee-jerk animosity. Black Cloak may return to this -- this issue sees Phaedra and Pax failing to consider a pretty obvious possibility due to certain class prejudice concerning the victims, which seems likely to come back and bite them – but in this issue, it strips certain scenes of their impact.

Despite this, it's easy for readers to invest in Black Cloak's world and characters. The debut issue offers enjoyable artwork, lively dialogue, layers of intrigue, and possibly something more to say. Black Cloak #1 ticks the right boxes for sci-fi storytelling, hooking readers in to see its mystery unfold.

Published by Image Comics

On January 11, 2023

Written by Kelly Thompson

Art by Meredith McClaren

Colors by Meredith McClaren

Letters by Becca Carey

Cover by Meredith McClaren