two to three pages long while others are up to ten pages. Unlike Epitaphs from the Abyss or Tales from the Crypt, these comics have no colorful host to introduce the stories. However, some have a protagonist narrator to provide background information throughout the story.   

I’m not as familiar with Weird Science and its sister publication, Weird Fantasy, as I am with EC's horror tales, so I don’t know how closely these recent stories hew to EC’s original formula. I do know that most of these stories don’t resemble traditional science fiction from the 1950s or today. They also don’t resemble the action-packed space operas prevalent in the pulp magazines of that era. The science here is rarely explained in detail, and the stories have few words a middle school student wouldn’t understand. Most stories have a twist ending (some of which are very easy to predict, which reduces the tale’s entertainment value considerably). Some feel like scripts from Twilight Zone episodes without Rod Serling’s narration. Others feel like EC horror stories slightly reworked to pay lip service to science fiction. For example, in “Brilliant and Deceived” by Ben H. Winters (one of the shorter and better stories in the volume), a doctor’s wife dies in a car crash. He uses his state-of-the-art medical skills to bring her back to life, but the results aren’t what he hoped. Make the protagonist a witch doctor instead of a medical doctor, and the story could have appeared in an EC horror title.

Several stories in the collection explore the ultimate consequences of futuristic inventions that aren’t far removed from modern-day technology. These results are rarely good. In “Automated” by J. Holtham, an industrialist develops a self-driving car that reflects his own personality. The story motors down a predictable path, but the ending is still enjoyable. “Behave” by Cullen Bunn is equally predictable until the last panel, but less enjoyable. A company develops an “Angel” device, an AI globe that hovers over the owner’s shoulder and delivers physical “reminders” if the owner engages in unwise or immoral behavior like drinking too much or skipping church.

The best stories in Cruel Universe tend to be the least predictable. In “The Deleted Man,” also by Ben H. Winters, the title character is a con artist who hires a company to erase all traces of his online existence. He’s happy with the results… until his body parts begin disappearing. (Since this is a comic book, he can still walk around without a nose or ears for a while.) This story has the best twist ending in the volume. Winters has another winner in “Priceless.” A man agrees to become an “experiencer” for an aging billionaire. He completes physically dangerous tasks and then has his memories of the event transferred to the billionaire’s brain. However, the experiencer suffers a crisis of conscience when he is ordered to abduct and murder an innocent woman. “Ray Gun” by Christopher Cantwell has another great twist ending. A down-on-his-luck loser discovers a ray gun one night in the middle of some mysterious wreckage. He soon learns the weapon can zap people he doesn’t like, such as his domineering boss, into nothingness.

About two-thirds of the stories in Cruel Universe ranged from good to near excellent. Unfortunately, the collection also had a fair share of duds. Part of the problem stems from the exposition needed to explain each story’s events. Plots that could have been good at six pages dragged when expanded to ten. If the ending was predictable, such as in “Solo Shift,” a time-travel tale by Corinna Bechko, the story fizzled for the last few pages. Some writers inserted heavy-handed political themes into their stories, such as “We Drown on Earth” by Zac Thompson. The story begins with a cargo ship’s crew dumping toxic sludge into the ocean and sinks from there en route to a predictable ending. Other stories are just plain confusing, like Matt Kindt’s “Doomsday Particle.” That one has the most pseudoscientific backstory about three subatomic particles that might have enormous power when combined. I’m still unsure what happened when they were combined, except that the result was a peculiar final panel.

Although the collection’s stories varied in quality, the artwork in EC Cruel Universe Vol. 1 was a delight. It’s one thing for me to say that a story’s titular ray gun zapped people. It’s another to show the results in a panel that features brightly colored innards and bugging eyes exploding outward from a body. Other death scenes are equally gory. This artwork style will be a turnoff for some, but I really enjoyed the various artists’ creativity. I also appreciated the imagination that went into depicting different aliens. “Peer Review,” an otherwise routine story about alien abduction by Cecil Castellucci, was enlivened by several panels featuring the abductee sharing drinks in an on-board saloon with fellow abductees from other planets. The sequence was obviously inspired by the cantina scene in the original Star Wars, but it’s colorfully enjoyable, nonetheless. As a bonus for readers, the publisher includes a dozen zany alternate covers for the individual magazines in the book’s supplemental materials.

As I noted when I reviewed Epitaphs from the Abyss, Cruel Universe is a work in progress. Some stories are excellent; others bring a magazine’s momentum to a halt. The collection has too many mediocre stories for me to give it a whole-hearted recommendation. Instead, I would rate it at 2 ½ stars if I could. However, the artwork enlivens nearly every story here. I’m giving Cruel Universe a three-star rating and mild recommendation. Hopefully, the magazine’s future issues won’t be as cruel to readers.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.