Broken Frontier

Nick Masters is a courier, paid to run the post-apocalyptic wastes between cities. Now he must make a run for his life and the life of someone dear.

BOOM! Studios goes cinematic again with another comic book mini-series that seems tailor made for the big screen. In point of fact, in reading this comic a reader might think that they’ve seen this all before in a movie somewhere… and they would be right.

In a post-apocalyptic America the few remaining normal humans hole up in scattered walled and fortified cities. The only ones who dare to traverse the toxic, radioactive, and mutant-filled wastes in between are the couriers and Nick Masters is one of the best in the business. When Nick gets on the bad side of a Los Angeles crime boss his sister is taken hostage. Now Nick must make the "Dead Run" – the path between Los Angeles and San Francisco – a route that only one man has made and lived to tell about it. If Nick doesn’t succeed both he and his sister will pay the ultimate price.

From the opening beats here the first thing that popped into my head were the Mad Max movies followed by Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars, the special edition version, and Escape From New York – and that was just for starters. From nearly every point in this comic I knew what was going to happen well in advance since the story seems to echo at least half a dozen different movies. Crosby and Nelson built an entire comic out of tropes but this is not to say that the story isn’t entertaining. The writers hit all the right buttons, in the right order and at the right time and the characters are engaging enough to make the reader care but I did hope for something that would have surprised me, a little twist that I had not seen coming or an unexpected variation on the familiar theme but there is none of that here. Although, at only the first issue in, perhaps there is hope that there will be twists and turns to come.

The art is provided by newcomer Francesco Biagini. This is definitely one area where BOOM! Studios has been excelling lately. They have proven to be willing to give chances to relative newcomers and talented up-and-comers – particularly reaching out to artists in countries outside the United States. This is good since it both gives the artists’ a wider field and expands Americans’ exposure to new artists. Biagini has that cinematic style that this comic needs – hitting "camera angles" and unfolding like a movie storyboard. Biagini’s art flows so much like film one can almost hear a movie soundtrack playing in the background for every panel. He also creates a solid and believable apocalyptic landscape – making it recognizable as America and yet twisted enough to come from a nightmare.

For a check-your-brain-at-the-door, comic book version of a summer popcorn flick, Dead Run works pretty well. There are cars, mayhem, mutants, and guns moving at breakneck speed but if you’re expecting something new under the sun here you’re going to be disappointed.