A Whole New World

Civil War Love Story

Yesterday was Wednesday so that means new comic books. Wednesdays are always fun because it means continuing content from books you are already reading. Some Wednesdays are better because they bring you brand new comics from creators you have enjoyed in the past. This brings me to the new Image Comics 5-part series, The New World.

Created by Ales Kot and Tradd Moore, with art and letter help from Heather Moore, Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller, this series throws us into the future of the once United States of America. It is, so far the story of two young people with family history relating to the current state of affairs of their nation and they stand on opposite sides of the political divide of their time. Sort of.

Click to enlarge.

The story is set some time after the year 2037. On April 15, 2037, five major cities were struck anonymously with nuclear devices. The cities appear to be New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle and Washington, DC. From the ashes of this attack arose war with other nations and internally. The former United States was divided into four new nations and The New World takes place in The New California. 

Our story centers around Stella Maris, a police officer who is a reality show star on the series Guardians. Guardians seem to be a major part of the culture in New California since Stella graces the cover of Sports Illustrated. We follow her in a similar manner to the COPS television program we have now as she captures or kills criminals according to the real time polling of viewers. Stella usually ignores these results and lets the criminals live, seemingly in act of aggression towards her grandfather, President Herod. The other person in this story is a hacker/terrorist (or freedom fighter?) named Kirby Shakaku Miyazaki.* Kirby is a vegan, straight-edge anarchist who lives with his alcoholic veteran father. The series starts with both characters rebelling in their own ways, meeting, having sex and the fallout from that will be felt in the next four issues.

I don't want to share too much because this has the potential to be a very good series. Ales Kot has written good Winter Soldier books and his series Wolf, Wild Children and Generation Gone have proven solid. Tradd Moore is simply amazing, which anyone who has read the Robbie Reyes' Ghost Rider run and the Luther Strode books can attest to. His work on this is complex and amazing and I can't wait to see what's next.

Seriously. Enlarge this image and be amazed.

The book establishes the setting of this world quickly and has already introduced the conflict of attraction between two characters from different sides of a political ideology. I want to see where this goes and also get some answers to questions raised- where is Kirby's mother? What happened to Stella's parents and how was her grandfather involved? What is the deal with Logan Maximus?

This creative team has me hooked for the next four issues. I'm invested in what is going to happen next to these characters in this New World.

Art by Ian Bertram and Heather Moore.

*His name seems to evoke comics legend Jack Kirby and animation legend Hayao Miyazaki.

Sean Fields is an aspiring writer and has been in the education field for more than a decade. He works mostly with teenagers nowadays which both keeps him well informed on pop culture and makes his hair turn grayer daily. He has a few blogs but is currently focused on this one and this other one. You can also find him on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram, if you want to be entertained or infuriated.