The Massive #1 Review: Post-Enjoyment

Post-whatever stories have been around for quite some time now and are usually quite a good investment. But what about a story that’s about a “post-everything” world, meant to be a drama and has a political and environmental message to convey? “The Massive #1” tries to be smart and ground-breaking despite it’s quickly becoming cliche post-apocalyptic genre, but for the most part, it’s pretty dull.

In a world that’s, according to the comic’s blurb, “post-war, post-crash, post-disaster, post-everything,” Callum Israel and his crew of the Kapital are out searching for the lost ship, the Massive. During this mission they must face the dangers of this new world that has now gone bad with new dangers and people out to kill them.

“The Massive” has a interesting premise, but issue one fails to grab the readers attention with a story that comes off as too vanilla amid the beautifully horrendous and dangerous surroundings. Not much happens in issue one except some background on what caused the world to become like this. It reads like what would happen if every bad thing happened all at once. For a post-everything world, the characters sure don’t act like it. In fact, the characters do very little to make you want to care about them. Most of you will lose interest halfway through.

The only thing not dull about “The Massive” is the art by Kristian Donaldson. The characters are nicely designed and have a lifelike look to them. The use of dark colors to show off the bleakness of the world also gives the comic a nice and creates atmosphere.

Donaldson has a good eye for ship designs and details. His ships look exactly like what a real ship would look and act like in real life. You can almost smell the salt in the air.

“The Massive #1” has a good concept and good art, but it falls flat in its debut issue. Can this ship change course? Of course. It just needs more story.  Writer Brian Wood may have a good message to say here, but it’ll be lost due to few people reading it. Excellent art won’t help matters much. Issue two needs to be more engaging if Wood wants his message to be heard.