The Great Divide #1
Story: Ben Fisher
Art & Lettering: Adam Markiewicz
Colors: Adam Guzowski
Review by Nathan Ryan (@Clown_Prince52)
If there is one thing that we are not short on these days, it is post-apocalyptic stories. We have so many that it can get pretty tired, pretty quickly. That being said, The Great Divide #1 by Ben Fisher has a fresh concept that is intriguing. More importantly, the execution is spot. There wasn’t really one area of this issue that I could point to as its weakness.
The concept is that one day a disease sets in that no longer allows for humans to make skin to skin contact. The person that initiates contact inflicts the other person, who finds themselves with a case of face explosion. Then, the memories a
nd even voices of the deceased ends up sticking with the person that initiated the contact. In many cases, this drives that person insane having these voices stick in their head.
Fisher really does a great job of diving right into the story while ensuring the reader is educated about what is happening. That is a difficult thing to do, and he does it seamlessly. We follow the stories protagonist in the present day dealing with everyday life in this world. It’s very neat to see what that everyday world looks like. It’s comical but realistic to see how people deal with the sexual frustration that sets in when you can’t touch someone. It does a great job of laying out what people do for currency as well as what is valued in this new world. Most importantly, it sets up conflict in ways that makes sense.
The art was also fantastic. This is an enjoyable book to look at, and matches the tone perfectly of what this book should be. It has the look and feel of the Fallout games to a certain degree.
Verdict
Buy! This book is well worth checking out. It didn’t have any weaknesses that stuck out in this first issue. It has a fresh concept for a post-apocalyptic story and that is a difficult thing to achieve anymore. Readers will be excited to see what happens in the second issue.
