Written by Scott Snyder & Charles Soule
Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Daniele Orlandini
Published by Image Comics
This book has a lot of pre-release hype around it.
And why not? You have two excellent writers collaborating with an incredible artist. There should be hype behind it!
It also tells an intriguing story which I enjoyed from the very first page. The creative team has really lived up to the hype.
The premise is that the United States of America has walled itself off from the rest of the world thirty years ago.
There is no explanation as to why this happened.
Now, thirty years later, nobody knows what resides in this crazy new land. A global pandemic breaks loose. And that is where this comic book begins.
The opening pages show a team flying towards the old California border. They have some conversations that fills the audience in on what is going on. And then, suddenly, a missile is fired at them! It is a quick and effective way to really get the action going. I was hooked pretty much from this point on.
From there, we get a flashback to a week ago. We see Dr. Charlotte Graves trying to save a dying boy from the pandemic. The scene demonstrates the incredible odds that she is up against. That is when the soldiers show up in helicopters and give Dr. Graves an offer.
They want her to come with them on a mission. The mission, of course, is to go to the United States to get some answers about this pandemic called the Sky Virus. The boy then dies right in front of Graves. And then we return to the present. That is when things really start to talk off!
The rest of the issue has some flashbacks mixed with some stuff from the present day.
We get to see the team advance on the island. It is eerie and tense. We also get to see what led right up to them being there.
When a communication comes through from America, we learn that although the nation has been silent, they have been watching the rest of the world. Basically, America has a cure for the Sky Virus. And they are willing to negotiate for it. But, the negotiations have to take place on American soil. America is going to open their borders.
What is the worst thing that can happen, right?
When the current state of America is revealed, it is completely unexpected. This all leads into a strange post apocalyptic type of world. And it is completely awesome and original. A lot of work obviously went in to build this world and it shows.
Snyder and Soule work perfectly together writing this book. The art is pretty amazing and great as well. This is only the first chapter and I can’t wait to see where it goes. It may in fact be the best debut issue of a new series that I have seen in quite awhile. Well done.
RATING: A
