Title: A Miracle of Science
Medium: Webcomic
Categories: Science Fiction
Length: Long (if not Epic) (435 pages)
Warnings: None

Author Website: Project Apollo (Mark Sach's main page)

Summary:
In the year 2148, the biggest threat to interplanetary civilization is a plague of mad scientists. The Vorstellen Police were formed to track down and neutralize these threats to society using whatever technology they can bring to bear.

Review:
Science-Related Memetic Disorder has it's own page on TV Tropes. This is the webcomic that coined the term.

The plot is, in theory, simple: Vorstellen Policeman Benjamin Prester is teamed up with Caprice Quevillion of the Martian Police to search out the cause of some concerning trends in AI research. Writer Jon Kilgannon and artist Mark Sachs take this basic odd-couple detective story and write it up to the epic scale of the background. Our heroes tour the entire inhabited solar system before cornering their prey, with plenty of chase scenes and property damage along the way. Even before the Mad Science makes itself evident, there's enough strangeness and extreme science to keep the most ardent fan's sense of wonder happy.

I am particularly fond of the way that the various abilities of the protagonists are played out, how their strengths become weaknesses and vice versa. As befits a society that views Mad Science as a memetic disorder, the denouement is as much a matter of psychology as power, and is very convincing.

The art is sometimes a little simplistic for my tastes (though it's still a million times better than anything I could do), but it does its job very well. There are some subtle visual cues introduced right at the start of the story that will tell you what is happening at the end much sooner than the dialogue would have you realise. It's important stuff too; in many ways it's the crux of the whole story, but understanding it only makes you more anxious about the characters.

You should read this comic not just because it's a ground-breaker, but because it's a good story well told.

A Miracle of Science