8 great comic books for science fiction fans

• Black Science
• Captain Marvel
• Cyclops
• Flash Gordon
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Nova
• Shutter
• Starlight

It seems like these days, every other great comic released is science fiction related. There's Mark Millar's Buck Rogers-inspired Starlight. Joe Keating's Indiana Jones in space Shutter. For darker scifi, there's Rick Remender's angsty Black Science. And what about Guardians of the Galaxy, with a movie adaptation that will hit a multiplex near you later this year? That's really only scratching the surface of what's out there right now. Sure, staples like Green Lantern are also still being published, but search a little further and you will find a host of fantastic stories that will make anybody interested in good science fiction stories happy.

Rick Remender has a talent for coming up with stories that are out of the ordinary. Take, for instance, his new series Deadly Class, with its premise of a school for young assassins. It's one of the best comics out right now, but it's more than matched in quality by his other indepent release, Black Science. Remender spins a tale about a troubled scientist, inventor of a machine that can be used to travel through different realities, only for things to go hopelessly wrong. At times this series is quite brutal, but it's always wild fun, making you feel like you are reading an old school scifi B-movie. The first storyline just finished with a bang, amd cam be snapped up in trade while you wait for the second storyline to start.

Having graduated from Ms. Marvel to Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers is taking her adventures away from earth, and into the rest of our universe. There, she has already met up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, which we are sure is only the start of Ms. Danvers wild adventures in space. The cool thing about this comic is the fact that our heroine is loving every minute of exploring outer space, just as much as you as a reader. Captain Marvel is also one of the coolest characters around at the time, being both funny and adventurous, strong and sassy.

Okay, this one will take a little bit of explaining. You probably know Cyclops as being one of the X-Men. Yeah, the one who killed Charles Xavier. Over in All New X-Men, Beast decided to bring the young, original X-Men from the past to the future, so that the older Cyclops could be remembered of the hopes and dreams he had as a kid, and to stop him from committing mutant genocide. As can be expected from any time travel story, things don't go completely as planned, and they start to go seriously wrong when, out of the blue, Cyclops' dad, who was supposed to have died, turns up. And guess what? He's some sort of space pirate, and wouldn't mind reconnecting with his son by taking him on a trip through space. Admittedly, it's quite a convoluted backstory, but if you just take it as Young Cyclops and his dad and their wild and wacky space adventures, then this book is a real blast.

The new Flash Gordon series is an unexpected delight. They could easily have gone by the numbers and turned this into a boring book, carried only by the household name of its hero. Instead, this book is great fun and one of the best choices for anybody looking for a rollicking, old school space hopping adventure. At times this book reminds us of something like Tom Strong, in the fact that it's funny and has it's tongue slightly in cheek, but it delivers a good story and some great artwork.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are about to hit it big, as the big budget blockbuster based on their adventures is poised to hit theaters this summer. I'm looking forward to it very much, as the comic book the movie will be based on is the perfect blueprint for a great popcorn movie. Admittedly, the comic series has been a little uneven so far, with some jarring art changes and too many crossover events to mess with the flow of the story, but whenever this book is on a roll (and Sara Pichelli is drawing it), there aren't many better books out there. It has a great cast of characters in Starlord Peter Quill, Drax the Destroyer, female assassin Gamora, tree creature Groot and the hyper violent Rocket Raccoon, and combines funny moments with high stakes adventure.

Another good example of why Marvel's space comics are so popular right now. This book centers on teenager Sam Alexander, who's father one day disappears. To Sam, his dad was just a drunk who couldn't keep a steady job and who kept spinning drunken stories of his days as a member of the space travelling Nova Squad. But then one day Sam inherits his dad's uniform and title and he finds out his crazy dad may not have been that crazy after all. Marvel knows how to make these books: fun and adventurous, with some serious moments thrown in for good measure. You know, if anybody at Marvel is reading this, this would make a great movie as well!

The protagonist of Shutter is a woman who is renowned all over the world for her wild space adventures. She has fans the world over, but things aren't looking so bright in the first two issues of this new series, as all sorts of terrors are trying to kidnap her. Still, she's the daughter of a space hero who was without fear, and she's her dad's girl. Writer Joe Keatinge and artist Leila Del Luca have created a wonderful world in their new comic, one of the many great SF-comics Image is publishing right now.

Last, but definitely not least, here we have Starlight. It's Mark Millar's new comic, and it's an homage to Buck Rogers and tales of that ilk. It stars Duke McQueen, one time space hero, who, when returned back on earth, was met with laughter when he told of his space adventures. He grew old bitter and disgruntled, looking forward to the day it will all be over, when one day a boy from the planet he once saved lands his spacehip in Duke's garden, telling him his home planet needs saving again. The story is fantastic, with great art by Goran Parlov, and the movie rights have already been optioned by Fox, even though the comic is only a few issues old.