The Massive #1
Writer: Brian Wood
Art: Kristian Donaldson
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Jared Fletcher

The first issue of a brand new series from Brian Wood. The man behind DMZ, Northlanders, Demo, and The New York Five. Small short stories featuring back story for the series ran in Dark Horse Presents as a precursor and for me, they worked. The basic premise of The Massive is that climate change has hit critical mass and the world is turned upside down. Cities are flooded, animals are in completely different migration patterns, weather systems have completely changed; this is about as post-apocalyptic as you are going to get. And we follow the small crew of a pacifist environmental group who are on the open seas, searching for their sister ship The Massive. There are also hints, both in the DHP material and this first issue that what has happened to the world was not a simple ecological catastrophe. That there is some intelligence at work behind it all. And though the environmental changes are the largest threats with the specter of pirates looming over them in this first issue, the environment is clearly shown to not be their only enemy. Of all those titles I listed at the start, this feels like it is going to be more in line with the tone of DMZ than any of the rest. And I’m okay with that.

Rating: 3.8/5

DMZ, Northlanders, The New York Five and Demo are all available in trade paperback. Give it a year or so, and I’m sure the same will be true of The Massive.