Rating: 5/5 – Sci-fi that is only 1 step away from the world outside your door.
Charles Soule, you weave a damn fine yarn. This is the best debut issue I’ve read in months!
New President Stephen Blades gets a letter from the outgoing President about the extraterrestrial presence that was detected building something in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Why was the last President almost irrationally picking fights in the Middle East? Well, he wanted us to have seasoned combat veteran soldiers AND have a reason to pump money into defense.
Sound a bit like Bush? Well it’s meant to! I hope Obama didn’t get the same letter that President Blades got. Of course this issue is just the tip of the iceberg, but this is the kind of creator-owned story that is the exact reason I love comics. Here we have a sci-fi story that takes the world we live in, changes some names to ‘protect the innocent’ and throws in a single plot-premise/twist to make the story diverge from the real world. No Justice League or Avengers to fly to the rescue. Anything can happen and I’m going to be strapped in for the ride.
AND this issue is another #1 issue for $1 (thanks, Oni!) Do you get the impression that I love publishers who give us that initial taste for $1? I appreciate it when they acknowledge comics are expensive and they make an effort to meet us more than half-way by giving us a low cost entry point so we can try something that’s new and different from spandex & capes. I truly hop you have a local comic shop that ordered heavily on this issue and I hope you can try it out. If you love this brand of sci-fi that’s only 1 step from the world outside your door you really owe it to yourself to give this a read.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall – bob@comicspectrum.com
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