Comic Review: 20XX #1 (Image Comics)

Image brings us the first issue of an ongoing series with 20XX. Issue one of this sci-fi thriller for mature audiences talks about disease and distrust.

Protected inside a series of broken and intact seawalls, the city of Anchorage Alaska continues, surviving global warming. There’s a deadly infection afoot. If you catch it, you will likely die. Or, and perhaps worse (?); if you pull through, you will be an outcast, living on the fringe, away from the rest of society. A ‘Sym’, with special powers. Friction abounds. And Maria, our lead character, is in for a bad day, with a full slate of that friction.

Written by Lauren Keely and illustrated by Jonathan Luna (Alex+Ada, Girls, The Sword), it’s a well thought out drama. The future concepts and details are fascinating. The dialogue is original and plausible. It goes somewhere interesting!

Jonathan Luna’s flat-line approach to drawing, coupled with his preference for long horizontal panels, gives the book a cinematic feel but restrains the dynamics at the same time. it’s black and white and grey all over. There are no flashy splash panels with figures exploding into mid-air; no big pages of red-faced, sweat-enhanced fighters emerging from supernovas. But without getting too philosophical about that, I find Luna’s subdued style works on behalf of the story; we are into the grey grey future alongside the norms and the syms. Jump in and give this title a read!

Image 20XX #1, $3.99 for 28 pages of comic content. Mature readers