Broken Frontier

It’s a brave new world… and perhaps the end of that world as well. Sinister conspiracies and men that are more than men are unleashed upon humanity.

Writer Scott Reed mixes dashes of Steampunk, Aldous Huxley, and dystopian futurism in this odd but interesting outing. The question remains, however, where is this title going?

Readers are first introduced to Nathan Fischer – a man dispatched by the Omakon corporation to retrieve a missing piece of equipment called a Servol-Conn unit. There is only one way for Fischer to return this item that is part technology and part, apparently, organic – and that is to step inside it. It seems to be a move that will change his life forever. Meanwhile, at a Moon based facility called Eudoxus, the criminally insane are housed… including what is left of Dimitri Leonov – a man who was once part machine himself. With Dimitri having been comatose for twenty years what could be the interest in him now by Omakon’s two highest executives – the disturbed, disturbing, and sexually depraved Arnold Reitch and Martha Maxwell? Whatever their interest is, things have changed because Dimitri is awake… and while there may be little left of him, what there is has become more than human…

The Overman is certainly an ambitious outing for Reed. The story reaches far to create a strange world that is enough like ours to make it a possible future for us. There are also the dire statements right from the beginning that this will mark the end of the world… but will that end be physical or metaphorical? Certainly metaphors and symbolism abound here from the outfits worn by the inmates of Eudoxus to the appearance of the Servol-Conn unit. The characters introduced are also an interesting mix of the normal, Edwardian horrors, and something that Warren Ellis might discuss over a pint at the local pub. The difficulty with this first issue, however, is that there is just not quite enough to grab hold of here. What are these Sevol-Conn units? What are they supposed to do? What is the Demolator Armor? What did it do? What did it look like? Characters walk on stage and are introduced but they do so in a vacuum – we get no information on their background, their history, or why they are doing the things they are doing. It is all very hypnotic on the surface but beyond the surface there are too many questions to sustain it.

The art, by Shane White is a perfect fit for the title. He has found a perfect design for both the futuristic aspects of the story and the more historically influenced ones. Certainly, his triumph is in his depiction of Leonov – who manages to exude a sense of power even as the reader also experiences disgust and pity for the character. Handling his own inks and colors as well has allowed White the control to ensure that his vision is exactly as he intends it to be.

The Overman is certainly something different on the stands with a literary bent and a look at a dystopian society. There is also an immense amount of potential here for telling a story that promises to be grand in scope. The first issue, however, could use a little more meat on the bones and it is to be hoped that the second issue will act to provide a little more fleshing out of this strange new world we’ve been introduced to.