Review by Frank Plowright

Until two months prior to the opening of The Stars Are Wrong Sebastian Greene had defined the plodding career detective, average in every respect. Something changed, though, and his crime clearance record has rocketed. Fred Van Lente reveals extra-terrestrial involvement, but Greene’s superiors in the Minor Crimes department don’t realise this and have forced him to take a partner who’s under instructions to investigate him. Sana Fayez is a women of integrity, despised within the department for whistleblowing on corrupt colleagues.

At first it seems Greene ticks plenty of boxes that could slot him into the titles originating with Mike Mignola. After all, there’s plenty of weirdness going on, but it soon becomes apparent Greene has more in common with Martian Manhunter and the Resident Alien TV show, an early episode of which runs a scene very similar to Van Lente’s creation here. Greene is slyly presented as a man of good intentions who’s out of place in our world, yet knows he has to fit in to achieve his greater objective. He’s well characterised as Mr. Odd, with his minor problem being how to feed information he knows via heightened senses into his day to day duties as a detective without arousing suspicion. Fayez is also a strong presence, not just a sounding board.

Guiu Vilanova deliberately poses Greene stiffly and has him continually straight faced and straight backed, engendering a feeling of awkwardness in any company other than that of his cat. He can be heavy on the inks, but that sample art shows a skill for likenesses, and when things become strange Vilanova ensures they stay that way.

Van Lente has enough good ideas, and a suitably questioning view of authority, to ensure The Stars Are Wrong remains unpredictable fun until the end. It’s a shame that there was never a sequel, not least because there’s plenty of potential, but this a good enough on its own and any fan of offbeat crime stories owes it to themselves to investigate.