A 9-issue comic book mini-series self-published by husband and wife writing and drawing team Comfort Love and Adam Withers. Rainbow in the Dark is set in a world without color and explores themes such as The Power of Love, creativity vs. conformity, and the nature of how we perceive reality.
Donna white is an Ordinary High-School Student who hates her life. It's not like anything's horrible, though. She goes to a good school, gets good grades, has loving parents... But the world around her is drab and grey. Every day is almost exactly the same as the one before, but Donna knows that there's more to life than the monotony of her everyday existence. And she's proven right when she witnesses a band of teens her age come charging up the street in full color battling monsters with classic muscle cars and rainbow cannons fueled by The Power of Rock. No, really.
After getting tangled along in the chase, Donna learns that humanity is trapped inside a field known as The Gloom, which keeps mankind locked in the dull monotony of everyday routine. The Gloom is controlled by monstrous creatures known as the Veratu for an unknown purpose, and the Veratu are determined to stamp out all pockets of resistance once and for all.
Rainbow in the Dark provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: Inverted. The Veratu are the embodiment of humanity's nightmares, and Donna represents their dream for a brighter future.
- Bait-and-Switch: The story makes it look like Donna's mother and her neighbor are going to have an affair, only for them to make a Deal with the Devil to let the Veratu back into the city.
- Big Bad: The Veratu are the villains, responsible for The Gloom.
- Broken Masquerade: The Gloom is brought down at the end of issue three.
- Character Death:
- Rocky in the first issue
- Donna's father and Jackson in the sixth.
- All of the Veratu are destroyed in the final issue.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe:
- The Veratu were brought to life by humanity's collective misery.
- This is also how Donna's friends and family keep her from fading out of existence after her Heroic Sacrifice.
- The Chosen One: Invoked. Just as the Veratu were created by the collective misery of the cleaners, Donna was created by generations of rebels hoping for a savior to destroy the Gloom and the Veratu once and for all.
- Crapsack World: One where Eldritch Abominations keep humanity trapped inside a Lotus-Eater Machine that forces the world to live in a perpetual cycle of mundane monotony.
- The world before the Veratu was just as bad.
- Deal with the Devil:
- The lead Veratu repeatedly tempts Donna with these in the final three issues.
- The Cleaners are humans who pledged themselves to the Veratu's service.
- Expy: Luke is described as "Jimi Hendrix as a Jedi Knight."
- Hammerspace: Invoked with both the Closets, Donna's jewelry box, and Kenji's bomb stash.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Rocky self-destructs himself and his car to distract the Veratu's monsters long enough for the rest of the rebels to escape in the first issue.
- Non-lethal variant. When the Cleaners attack the rebel camp, Raina allows herself to be captured to protect Donna.
- In issue 6, Jackson sacrifices himself to buy time for the rebels to escape to the city when the Veratu reclaim it.
- In the final issue, Donna destroys the Veratu, knowing that with her purpose for existing fulfilled, she would fade from existence. Fortunately, her friends and family save her with The Power of Love.
- Humanoid Abomination:
- The Veratu are vaguely humanoid in shape, but look distinctly grotesque.
- The Cleaners are another example. Although they're technically a subversion since they're just humans in suits.
- Invisible to Normals: People living in the Gloom can't see the Veratu, the Cleaners, the monsters, or anyone who's broken free from the Gloom. Until the end of the third issue that is.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Gloom is a supernatural creation of the Veratu that has enslaved the minds of the vast majority of humanity. It keeps them in dull monotone.
- No Ontological Inertia: Once the captured Cleaner is removed from his suit, he begins to rapidly age until he finally disintegrates.
- Rock Opera: Despite lacking any audio whatsoever, Comfort and Adam designed the series with the look and feel of a Rock Opera.
- Shout-Out: The series is full of references to popular '80s songs. Even the title is a reference to a song by Ronnie James Dio.
- Two-Part Trilogy: Invoked. Issues 3 ends on a satisfyingly happy note, before the second arc continues to drive the story forward.
- Was Once a Man: The Cleaners are humans who servants of the Veratu.
- We Can Rule Together: The lead Veratu attempts to convince Donna to join him three times, and each time she rejects him.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Rocky is killed in the first issue, before readers can really get to know him.
- Wham Episode: Issue 6. The Veratu retake the city and undo the heroes' hard work, forcing them to flee as the captured citizens are taken to the Acropolis in cages.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Issue 9 reveals that the Veratu and their monsters are nothing more than illusions made real by the desperation and misery of humanity.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Rocky dies holding back the Veratu's minions to buy the rest of the rebels time to get Donna to safety.
