Image Comics Review: Undiscovered Country #2
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writers: Charles Soule and Scott Snyder
Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini
Letters: Crank!
Colors:
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
New York Times bestselling writers SCOTT SNYDER (WYTCHES, A.D.: AFTER DEATH) and CHARLES SOULE (CURSE WORDS, the forthcoming novel Anyone) will team up with artists GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (The Amazing Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Hellblazer) and DANIELE ORLANDINI (Darth Vader) and 2019 Eisner Award-winning colorist MATT WILSON (THE WICKED AND THE DIVINE, PAPER GIRLS) to embark on an epic adventure in the brand-new ongoing series, UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY!
As the team goes on the run from the deadly Destiny Man, the focus shifts to Charlotte’s brother, Daniel. Until this expedition, he was the only person on Earth to successfully infiltrate the black box that is the United States. What secrets did Daniel learn that might keep the team alive, and what did they cost him?
Positives
Told in a series of flashbacks, Undiscovered Country reads like your own personal movie. The pace is that of watching a futuristic thriller on Netflix or the big screen. With that stated, we have to wait and that is what makes comics so great!
Destiny Man…perhaps he is the Randall Flagg from Stephen King’s The Stand. Perhaps he is a patriot of some sort who will stop at nothing to make sure the U.S. goes untarnished from outside interests. Perhaps…. we can keep guessing or wondering, but that is the wonderful thing about this comic is that it is new and refreshing and does keep one on the edge.
A team of heroes with a back story. After crash landing into the fortified borders of America, the international team of scientists and diplomats sent to find a cure for a global plague find instead a far stranger nation than they ever imagined. Divided by a massive series of spiraling walls, the U.S.A is far from a shining beacon on the hill. The mutant warlord known as The Destiny Man lays claim to the outer edges. Leading an army of genetically modified war beasts, The Destiny Man holds the key to the American Spiral, at whose source the team hopes to find the promised cure.
Snyder and Soule make sure each character has their due part in the story. And with that comes more extensive issues I would imagine. The US now seems to be more akin to a Science Fiction world ala Star Wars. The mutant raiders, elephantine land shrimp and other genetic monsters are par for the course.
Positives (even more accolades)
I can’t brag enough about the story telling, but even in issue #2 we have one of the team that shows his true colors. Thus we have political intrigue as well some dividing among the ranks of the team within the US walls.
What Undiscovered Country also does is provide Easter Eggs from cover to cover in additional commentary of time lines, geography, and comments by people both in and out of this fictionalized United States. Snyder and Soule have spend considerable time bringing this to life! The geography of the US now is akin to Marvel’s Old Man Wolverine time era!
And form the graphic below, we get some foreshadowing of some Uncle Sam….
Negatives
This is where crickets hum…I can’t think of a thing unless you want a side comic that provides an entire back story and history of how the United States closed its borders. While I’m loving the story, I can see a prequel being even better!
Verdict
What? It’s not already on your shelf? Buy this book! And go back and obtain Issue #1. It’s ground floor original stuff!
