Suiciders #01

Writer/Artist: Lee Bermejo
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Publisher: Vertigo
 
If you think Los Angeles is in shambles now, you need to pick up a copy of Suiciders today so you too can say, “Oh, it actually CAN get worse…” All manner of joking aside, Suiciders has just easily placed itself in my running for strongest debut issue of 2015, if not best new series of the year. I mean, yeah that’s an early call, but speaking on/off the record with incredibly heavy biases? This issue has everything.*
 
Here’s the skinny: some undisclosed time in the relatively near future, L.A. gets taken out by “the Big One” -- a cataclysm so immense that the U.S. government turns its back on L.A., and leaves the city and her (its?) denizens to their own devices. All this means several things to ensure survival:

- Survival of the fittest
- Violence, LOTS of violence
- The establishment of a new city-state based upon a new emergent form of government following the catastrophic events of “the Big One”
- More violence!

What crawls forth from the depths of the city’s near demise is not only the fortified metropolis of “New Angeles” (technically it should be “Nuevo Angeles” or something, but I’m not one to gripe), where entertainment primarily comes through the form of the eponymous sport: Suiciders, where killing is a sport. Two celebrity-status murderers enter an arena filled to the brim with deadly traps, only for one to emerge victorious; mercy is NOT an option.
 
Suiciders is a savage tale of human civilization in what could very well be its last throes, and how we choose to numb/distract ourselves from the larger circumstances at hand with media and entertainment. Bermejo’s opening issue to what could be a great post-apocalyptic series looks not only at a dystopian future where media and sports have evolved to ridiculous extremes, but also where themes such as bigotry and eugenics still plague a mankind attempting to delay (if not altogether halt) its extinction. All this collectively makes for an intriguing story accompanied by beautiful graphics and overtop action, as we go on a journey through the dying days of New Angeles.
 
*DISCLAIMER: Okay, not really ‘everything’, but it’s still a good read!