Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"It's okay, it's okay... I know it's disorientating, but you're safe now. You hear me? You're safe."
"Him! What did you do to him?!"
"He's asleep. He's going to be okay. You're going to be okay. Just calm d..."
SKRAKK!
"Sedative! Hurry! Bridget! I can't hold her much longer!"
"I can't believe she scratched you."
"She was over there almost a decade. She's scared... how could she not be?"
"Still... I need to look at those scratches... there's no telling what's under those fingernails."
I don't know what Bridget is worried about. It's not like the lady they've just rescued is a zombie...
I should probably clarify that she really isn't a zombie. Or indeed possessed. Sorry, I was always going to try and get at least one WALKING DEAD gag in there. And then I had to go and over-egg matters even further with an OUTCAST rejoinder... I really can't be arsed to try and shoehorn an INVINCIBLE gag in, though...
Moving on... yes, Robert Kirkman returns to terrify us once more, this time with a science-fiction / horror hybrid that owes as much to Quantum Leap as it does to Alien. Well, technically it's more like Sliders rather than Quantum Leap, but let's be honest, you'd probably forgotten all about that particular show until I mentioned it.
What it actually reminded me of most in comics terms would be Jeff Smith's RASL with its dimensional hopping, but with lots of added monsters and intrigue. Also because of Lorenzo de Felici's exceptional art which definitely has a touch of Mr. Smith about it too.
Fabulous colouring from Annalisa Leoni also, who manages to combine an astonishing variety of shades and hues in a remarkably understated, subtle way. Quite the masterclass in the use of contrasting and complimentary colours to spot highlight and draw attention to detail and so take the illustrations to another level altogether. Very clever.
Very unusual for me to get this far into a review without rambling on about the plot, so I'd better get on with it, I guess! A decade ago there was an... incident. The city centre of Philadelphia was wiped out in an instant, replaced in the blink of an eye with 30 square miles of a huge vegetative ecosystem and its incumbent voracious predators. Almost 20,000 people were seemingly wiped out of existence in a moment.
Eventually, once the 'invasion' was brought under control after a not inconsiderable number of additional casualties and the area quarantined, a scientist named Nathan Cole worked out what had happened. The 30 square miles of Philadelphia which vanished, had in fact, merely swapped places with the new terrain. Suddenly hope was raised that somewhere on an alien world, that promptly became named Oblivion, there were possibly thousands of presumably terrified survivors.
Technology was quickly developed to allow incursions to Oblivion and search and rescue missions launched to retrieve many of the missing Philadelphians cowering in the ruins of their city, which itself was rapidly being assailed and assimilated by the native fauna and flora. After ten years, however, the last few of which proved completely fruitless in finding any remaining survivors, government funding inevitably dried up and public interest waned. A monument to the remaining lost souls was built, inscribed with each of their names, and a museum built in their honour.
Nathan Cole, however, remains convinced further humans remain on Oblivion, including his brother. In fact, he believes that there is a whole community hidden away somewhere, possibly even thriving. And so, he continues to make unauthorised, dangerous solo excursions with his own technology. When he manages to find a husband and wife and successfully retrieves them, to much understandable public fanfare, he consequently expects to be given a new remit and improved budget to conduct further missions.
To his surprise and anger, he finds all the government really wants is to move on and draw a line under the whole Transference as it ultimately became known. Lest the public continue to fret the mysterious, spontaneous occurrence could suddenly happen again. Nathan, of course, has got other ideas... including for one very shocking reason which is revealed at the climax of this first volume...
