Review by Ian Keogh

By now readers ought to know how Stephen McCranie plots Space Boy, and that there’s more fun to be had by just following where he leads secure in the knowledge that everything will be covered in the end. This is the first Omnibus cover to feature Space Boy in his truest form, as an alter-ego created by the young Oliver, and that’s because Space Boy here becomes more than just a name, but an important component of Oliver’s psyche and extremely enabling.

Toward the end of Omnibus 3 McCranie dipped into a flashback sequence, and that occupies just over two-thirds of Omnibus 4 as well. This is where the advice to follow where McCranie leads comes into play. Much of the flashback seems pointless, leading to the inevitability of an event we’ve already been told has occurred. For all the additional emotional resonance of seeing the young Oliver interacting with his father, and the Superman origin pastiche of his father predicting disaster without being believed, it still comes across as events that didn’t require such detail. However, as perverse as it may sound, once the disaster has happened and Oliver is left alone in space the story picks up considerably.

Quite apart from anything else there’s the equivalent of a superhero sequence that with a different treatment could quite easily slot into one of Grant Morrison’s stranger efforts. It features the alien presence already seen in Amy’s dreams, later named the Wanderer, and reconstitutes our opinions of it, not least confirming if needed that the FCP and the cleverly named Director Langley are thoroughly compromised. They’re also seen ten years earlier than the present day events, already committed to secrecy and deceit.

The quality steps up another notch during the final third when McCranie returns to the present day and the now captive Amy. There’s an explanation for her resilience, and a really good scene with Langley where her talent for associating people with flavours is nicely used to prompt revulsion. There’s no predicting where things are heading, but it seems as if the FCP’s covert activities are going to be attracting wider attention.

Many moods are required over 700 pages, and McCranie’s sympathetic cartooning is equal to them all. Some unusually complex scenery is decorative, the artistic manifestation of Amy’s flavour association is pleasingly abstract, and also notable is how even characters known to be compromised have some sympathetic qualities.

Because of the nature of McCranie’s sometimes indulgent plotting these bargain Omnibus editions are the best way to experience Space Boy, but if preferred these stories fill the smaller Space Boy 10, 11 and 12.