Broken Frontier

A being has been with us since the dawn of time. He has quietly saved us from countless calamities. The reason you are unaware of his actions? He erases these important dates from our memory.

It’s November 11, 2004 and a flu pandemic has caused the nation of Swaziland to be put under an internationally mandated and martially enforced quarantine. Sure, it sounds like an overreaction. But this ain’t no swine flu. The rate of contraction and the lack of response to traditional medical treatments has caused it to be referred to as an extinction level event.

When a group of scientists discovers that even hazmat suits are not capable of stopping the progress of the communicable disease, our nameless benefactor must race against time to secure humanity’s last hope and only possible viable cure. He has to talk an egotistical monarch off the ledge of accidental genocide on a scale unimaginable and save a damsel in distress. No hero has ever had the kind of day this guy is having.

Hester does an admirable job setting up the terror of his scripted epidemic. Medical jargon flies as fast and furious as if this were an episode of E.R. Surprises happen early and often. The setup is juxtaposed with a haunting narrative by the lead of the book. However, not knowing who he is until later keeps his fear from being as palatable as possible.

The sense of agelessness to our yet to be named savior is easily established through two historical vignettes. The reader is given a clue to his age and the nature of his work. The scope of this five issue series is epic to say the least, yet this issue’s mission is taut suspense at its best.

Irving’s dynamic art adds to the level of tension. His blank but hardly characterless backgrounds give the book an eerie quality. However, it is his ability to mimic the work of Robert Richardson on Natural Born Killers that makes the terror thick. Added to this is his ability to show dread on the human countenance and his unflinching portrayal of the ravages of the illness. Suddenly, through the intensity of his artwork, an eco-thriller with a metaphysical edge becomes a straight up horror piece.

Days Missing is off to a terrifying and topical start that should keep readers up late thinking about its ramifications. Good show all around and seeing how the title jumps the time gap here and there, it should be quite a compelling read.