"They're Not Like Us: Black Holes for the Young" is a pretentious exercise in abstract conversation

They're Not Like Us is truly unique experience of a comic book series.  It is at once fascinating and intriguing, but that feeling doesn't last more than a few minutes.  After the completion of the first Trade Paperback, Black Holes for the Young (which collects the first six monthly issues), is an abstract, existential and a bit too philosophical work to be entertaining, and as a result it's simply a headache inducing bore.

There are several characters that one can easily equally despise in Black Holes for the Young, but I suppose at the center of all these pretentious douchebags is a girl called Syd, a suicidal, telepathic rebellious teenager/young adult who has mental powers she's not even aware of.   After a failed attempt of trying to take her own life, she is taken out of a hospital by a mysterious man, referred to by everyone as The Voice, and then brought back to his mansion somewhere in San Francisco.  There, she will meet other rich, annoying and self absorbed douchebags, all who have some sort of psychic and telepathic abilities which elevate them above the rest of the human population, who are clearly their inferiors.  We know this, because they all spend countless pages just talking about how great they are, and how terrible everyone else is, and how they will make the world a better place, and blah blah blah.

Writer Eric Stephenson creates a world where there isn't one single likable character.  Syd, for all her initial goodness, appears confused in this spider's web she finds herself in, clearly out of her element, and surrounded by people who don't give a shit about anyone else.  Just how exactly Stephenson plans on developing a long-term series out of that terrible of a concept is beyond me, but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.  The artwork, by Simon Gane and Jordie Bellaire, is just as bland and unimpressive; the characters appear as if they're missing souls altogether, which would be ok, if this was a Robert Kirkman serial about the Zombie apocalypse, but alas, 'tis not so.

I read comics all the time.  In a single week, I'll average about 4 or 5 different Trade Paperbacks from various series.  I can honestly say that They're Not Like Us: Black Holes for the Young is the worst thing I've ever read from the American comic book market.  Never have I looked forward to turning the final page more than last night, as my brain and eyes took a beating they will never recover from. Perhaps this material is simply above my IQ level, or perhaps it's way, way below it.  What can I say... I'm not like them at all!
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