New Masters #1: Welcome to the Future

New Masters #1 starts off very strong. It begins by following a character named Ola, accompanied by her robot, Ase, exploring ruins and mines. Our character is looking for deposits of something called obsidium. It’s not fully explained yet what obsidium is used for, but we do learn that it is rare and highly sought after.

We are then taken to a village where the Reis couple are speaking with community leaders in an attempt to sell a device that can help mine and create a safer mining environment for obsidium. This again highlights the importance of obsidium and shows how people heavily rely on it. At the same time this also does an excellent job explaining the dangers of mining obsidium.

We also get to explore Governor Tosin Ojumah and her partner, Y’Volla, who is a spy. We learn about Tosin’s father who seems to be a representative of Earth. There is also the Jovians, who seem to be the biggest buyer of obsidium. Together they discuss “The Eye of Orunmila”, which may hold answers to accelerating Earth’s technology ahead.

This issue did a fantastic job of world building. Many plot points were planted and we get to explore many characters that seem to be the stars of this series. The narrative excels at making each character unique with their own personalities and interesting motives. Shobo Coker writes an amazing first issue that really grabbed my attention from page to page.

Shof Coker’s art was breathtaking. Every panel showed so much to explore. The art really added to the world building, giving beautiful imagery to the setting’s environment. Shof draws fascinating technology that both feel real and foreign to today’s world that makes everything relatable but still futuristic.

The color palettes throughout the issue were also gorgeous. At night we had cool colors and during the day warm, sun rise colors. I love how we had neon colors in the more technologically advanced cities, but not overdone like some comics I feel do too much of. The colors felt original and gave the setting a new feel.