Massive #1

A catastrophic disaster named The Crash devastates the earth and kills millions and floods entire cities all over the world. For oceanic activist Callum Israel & his crew of the ship The Kapital, they must adapt to a ravaged world looking for fuel & rations, at the same time avoiding pirates, pillagers and god knows what else. But their mission remains the same, search for answers for the cause of The Crash & locate their undermanned & missing sister ship The Massive.

The first line on the first page sums it up perfectly. “What does it mean to be an environmentalist after the world’s already ended?” This first issue is an introduction to the characters & their surrounding environments and how they must deal with them and it does it really well. Is it a little slow? Yes. Is it uninteresting? Hell no! Captain Israel is a pacifist and will only use violence if absolutely necessary. He believes in his mission, but it does make you wonder, why care about the earth when there’s nothing left? Why carry on when you could be the last humans alive? It’s not like he’s still getting a paycheque. In the next couple of issues, I look forward to see what drives this character to persist & what gives him a sense of purpose in a world turned upside down. The crew seem to be loyal to the captain, but when you have a story that takes place on a ship, things change, tempers flare & cabin fever sets in, so eventually you’ll have a mutiny.

The story is from Brian Wood, who’s previous work includes Channel Zero, Northlanders & DMZ. He seems to like writing about harsh environments, war torn locations & anti-government movements. I’m a fan of his work and I’m very excited about this series, I’m also glad it’s found a home at Dark Horse. Picture the story like Waterworld, but with a more realistic & plausible approach to it and the captain is marine life activist Paul Watson. The illustrations are by Kristian Donaldson who has previously worked with Brian Wood on Supermarket & DMZ. His style really works for this comic, drawing characters with piercing faces and wide panels of ships, boats & coastal horizons. Looks great. The colors are by Dave Stewart who’s doesn’t make the illustrations too bright, which really sets the tone for a bleak & devastated environment. I really love the use of earth tones to describe the past disasters.

This is a monthly series and I’m definitely onboard (no pun intended) for future issues. From Dark Horse Comics. Pub. Date June 13, 2012