VISION-MAN

Strulovitz’s graphic novel offers scientific explanations and analyses in a virtual-reality adventure.

As the story opens, an Israeli teenager named Dreamy, who begins this five-chapter volume as a high schooler, hops into virtual reality where he’s known as Vision-Man. He connects online with his Siberian friend, Tigress, who’s worried about the clathrate gun hypothesis in which methane, as a greenhouse gas, will accumulate in ice, because it will eventually melt and release gaseous methane all at once. Dreamy, however, as the leader of Highschoolers Organization Protecting Earthlings, dreams up an invention: He suggests employing lightweight aluminum balloons to bounce the sun’s rays away from Earth—a more practical solution than a “space mirror.” Dreamy also has VR conversations with others, including a young Ethiopian desertification expert who calls herself Coffee-Bean, and a cosmology expert known as Californian Redwood. He has ideas for inventions to combat a variety of global troubles, including one that uses reverse osmosis to make salty ocean water fresh in places where the current desalination process doesn’t adequately clear the country’s water of salt and minerals. In other instances, Dreamy merely offers an alternative way of viewing a scientific principle. For example, Californian Redwood isn’t content with scientists using hypothetical concepts of dark matter and dark energy to explain unknowns, such as the universe’s expansion. Dreamy notes that the speed of time in Earth’s solar system isn’t “the ‘golden’ standard for the whole universe,” and asserts that galaxies farther away only appear to be moving faster due to their distances; so, according to Dreamy, the universe isn’t expanding at an accelerated rate.

The author delivers an entertaining debut that makes its scientific explanations easy to understand. Dreamy, for instance, uses simple objects as references; his desalination machine looks like an upside-down cup in a bathtub, and time discrepancies in assorted galaxies seem akin to a video running at different speeds. Each chapter opens with a too-short bit that zeroes in on Dreamy’s life outside virtual reality, in which he misses an important exam or inadvertently throws away plane tickets to a “romantic vacation” with his “love,” Carmiti. Most of the novel consists of Dreamy and his online pals in serious discourse, but there’s occasional humorous banter. In a standout moment, two female characters scoff at Dreamy’s “ ‘don’t worry baby’ machismo.” Each of the five chapters comes with a second version in which much of the artwork changes, but the text and certain diagrams are identical. The illustrations, which appear to have been created with an artificial-intelligence program, feature a manga style at first, and in each ensuing version, are more realistic. However, many of the pages have a lot of wasted empty space, even with enormous word balloons taking up significant room. Strulovitz adds accommodating diagrams and credited photos from various sources, as well as numerous website links, most notably to YouTube videos in which the author offers lectures on a particular chapter’s topic.

Enjoyable lessons on intricate concepts, although the presentation could have used more polish.