UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #7: The Once and Future America

After the madcap end to the previous arc issue #7, Snyder and Soule pump the breaks heavily by splitting the issue into interpersonal moments between the main characters on the train and filling us in on the history of the Aurora project. 21 years in the past we follow a younger Dr. Sam Elgin and other members of project Aurora including The Graves’ parents, Elgin trying to impress upon the President and representatives of the various zones America has been divided into, the importance of following the plan (whatever that is, as it’s kept fairly nebulous) laid out by Project Aurora. Elgin is the literal voice of doom in this situation alluding to time itself being in danger because of the abuse of certain things in each of these “zones” There’s a large amount of information pointing to how America has gotten to be as it is but Snyder and Soul parse the information out in snatches which form a puzzle piece road map that’s interesting to follow. This info dump as it were is counterbalanced once again with superb interpersonal interactions between characters especially back in the future on the train as each character is examined at the moment as to how they are feeling and reacting to each other after their narrow escape.

I haven’t been too sure about exactly where this story is going but rather in reviews of past issues, I’ve dwelt on the ongoing heavy usage of American iconography and symbolism in the book. It’s present once again in this issue but it’s secondary to the information Snyder and Soule present. At this point it seems like we dealing with time being fractured into a spiral set of realities where the “zones” have become there own separate realities, this goes a long way to explaining the difference between the Sam Elgin that sent the message in the first issue to the Sam Elgin in the Destiny territory and the surprise on the last page of this issue but that’s just my two cents. it’s another solid writing job from Snyder and Soule, characters are believable and dialogue is well written and there’s still a solid vein of mystery to everything which keeps one intrigued.

The art is good but as far as other issues go possibly one of the weaker issues, as most of the book is character driven moments there aren’t any over the top splashes and wild action panels we saw in issue #6 although there is some mayhem involving the train toward the end of the issue. Camuncoli, Grassi, and Wilson are still solid and cohesive as an art team this issue though I felt the writing outpaced the art just a little as I can’t say there were a lot of pages that blew me away baring in mind review copies are not ideal for art analysis always. The complete change in color palette from Wilson as they enter the next zone is quite striking though and those are my favorite pages of the issue. There are a series of data pages that offer more insight and information after the issue ends as well as pages showing designs of one of the characters in the issue as well which are well worth a read and shouldn’t be skipped.

The cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli is foreboding and seemingly disconnected with what’s happening in the issue until you look at it more carefully and realize that it’s actually telling you what zone the characters have entered next when you use the information provided on the data pages at the end of the issue to cross-reference the background imagery.