ORIGINS #1: Your Past is Your Future

ORIGINS #1 is a superb opening salvo in this limited sci-fi series. One one hand it is beautifully illustrated and colored by Jakub Rebelka and Patricio Delpeche with every page oozing atmosphere in vivid colors as we get to traverse a world that has not seen humanity in over a thousand years and on the other it’s the story of the rebirth of the proverbial Adam (I am pretty sure the main characters name being David ADAM’s is no coincidence) into a veritable garden of Eden except the garden is anything but welcoming and is very deadly to human beings.

Chapman narratively splits the story between showing us the rebirth of David Adam into this world of no humans and moving forward in time to a grown-up David and his android parent surrogate Chloe exploring the outside world while trying to avoid the attentions of the dreaded and mysterious NETWORK. Chapman offers no real explanations in this issue of exactly how the world came to be but rather concentrates on showing the rebirth of Adam’s (in a process that looks remarkably like 3d printing if I am being honest) and also showing us that the world is now deadly to human beings… dialogue is added of a young David talking and asking questions as a child of Chloe as well as Chloe’s personal narrative, the effect of which combined with the art offers it’s own truncated but effectively melancholy and not very detailed glimpse into the history of what came before as Rebelka and Delpeche take us through an overgrown world devoid of human life with recognizable landscapes dotted with manmade landmarks and human skeletons that are both hauntingly beautiful and at the same time menacing.

There are several very interesting themes hinted at in this issue including the idea of this David being like the proverbial Adam but there is also the idea of man as the alpha and the omega. From the previews and press, we know that David Adam is ultimately the person that was responsible for making the world as it is (which is not explored in this issue) and now he has been brought back to try and change that and so herald a new beginning for mankind. It will be interesting to see how well Chapman explores this idea. Chapman complicates this idea by adding the premise that the original memories of David Adam exist and need to be downloaded into this newer version of himself as the new version does not possess these memories…and Chloe’s concern that these memories may be more than David can handle. There’s also the idea that this NETWORK appears organic as opposed to technological but that it’s deadly to humans, Throw in some decent irony written in too (having the only living human’s refuge be the New York Museum of Natural History is both funny and poignient at the same time)

Overall the issue is smartly written and magnificently drawn but if I have one criticism it’s that I really come away from this opening issue feeling like they took the OGN and broke it up into however many pieces we getting without considering what that would do to the pacing. Still, it’s issue 1 maybe issue 2 will prove me wrong.