Undiscovered Country #2: The Deepening Rabbit Hole

Another superbly written issue as Snyder and Soule balance character examination and writing with story advancement blending in several types of allegorical elements which answers questions but asks more at the same time to keep you hooked from the beginning. This issue’s character focus is very much on Major Daniel Graves as Snyder and Soule give insight into the history of “the only man to nearly get it into the United States without permission nearly causing World War III.” His nature is very cleverly demonstrated from page one which is a scene from his childhood growing up with his sister and sets up the shocking surprise later on in the issue.

While Graves is the focus from a character perspective, the history of his journey to being on the team also serves to flesh out the natures of the both the Alliance Euro-Afrique as well as the Pan-Asia Prosperity Zone and the bureaucrats representing them. That’s really the superb thing about the writing in the issue in that every single major character feels fully realized, unique and three dimensional and never throw away.

Along with the character writing and story advancement, Snyder and Soule have cleverly blended in allegorical elements into this story but have combined that with the mystique of American symbolism as embodied by the character of Sam as Uncle Sam and the description of the mysterious Destiny man as THE BEAST… for those that like apocalyptic science fiction like myself it’s a powerful and attractive combination for storytelling that I personally really enjoy made even better by the mystery elements and questions it asks.

The pacing is good and written in a way that moves things forward quickly while still not getting overly bogged down in the story and information being presented though it is a comic I found I have to reread several times to absorb everything.

The art is once again fantastically detailed from the cover on as Camuncolli and Orlandini give us pages of practical real-world person to person interaction and facial expressions alongside the nightmare fuel of strange clothing, machinery, mutant creatures  ( including a giant carnivorous riding creature that looks like a prawn ) and the alien otherness of the Destiny Man and his followers against the backdrop of the American landscape.

The splashes range from beautifully haunting (see the sunrise in the desert) to downright disturbing ( see the people on the wall) and hats off to Matt Milla who’s use of color everywhere really brings the art to life and adds an immersive atmosphere to almost every panel that helps draws one into the art as only great coloring can. The lettering is deftly handled by Crank and its the combination of all the artistic elements with great writing which constantly introduces new elements and mystery that make for an excellent second issue.

Special mention to the layout of the comic. Extra data pages and design pages have been included at the end of the comic. This issue includes writing notes from the Soule and Snyder as well as a design page of the mysterious Destiny Man.