We do get to find out the protagonist’s name—the male protagonist—at the end of the issue but I shan’t spoil it for now. It’s in the top five of most common names but still.
This issue beings with a resolution to the outstanding members of the Rebel Alliance and therefore traitors from last issue, who helped the male hero escape the dome into the wilds. And another speech from the Reagan-Bro president. With the added context the dome dwellers are basically just the sociopath blue bloods and their intellectually wanting relations, it’s more comic book villain but still scary. Especially since they’re planning on killing all the survivors they left behind on the surface to take over.
On said surface, our male protagonist wakes to find himself waiting to be thunderdomed by the cannibals. The woman who saved him—Carolyn—is there too, with some surprises of her own. At that point it becomes an action issue, an often icky, cannibal-eating-human action issue (complete with a megalomaniac, but thoughtfully so, big bad leader for them to confront).
Creator Steve Skroce’s take on post-apocalyptic wasteland is solidly novel; it doesn’t do a bunch of references, but it also doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Because once the action starts, it’s all about the art. I mean, there’s a lot of humor in the writing—including a little bit more humanity than I was expecting—but the art’s just phenomenal. Nothing like panel-gazing at Skroce’s glorious detail of cannibal carnage. Actually, he seems to be toning it down in some cases—I was dreading the detail on what appears to be a skin-mask, but it never got too gross.
The leads are good enough too; they’re amusing and have enough personality to carry their scenes.
Post Americana is shaping up nicely.
Leave a Reply