Evolution

Image Comics’ new series Generation Gone is about the future, but the science-fiction comic isn’t set in the far flung. In fact, you’ll recognize its setting as practically identical to our own. Its characters live in a surveillance state, bogged down by the cost of health care, student loans, racial disparity and middle-class malaise. But writer Ales Kot and artist André Lima Araújo are nonetheless focused on the idea of the future — namely, who has the right to it. Millennials have had the future stolen from them, Kot suggests. They’re on the verge of stealing it back. That’s a paraphrase from Mr. Akio, the shadowy government contractor whose behind the scenes actions launch Generation Gone into motion. Part Elon Musk, part J. Robert Oppenheimer, he’s working on mechanized weapons technology for the US government. His ambition is rooted elsewhere, in something called Project Utopia. “Everything in the world is code,” Akio explains to a board of government operatives. From computer

“AXIS: Revolutions” #1 takes a look at the “violent outbreaks of hate” resulting from Red Onslaught’s attack in the main “AXIS” title. Writers Dennis Hopeless and Simon Spurrier take on the tasks of investigating the impact of Red Onslaught through the events surrounding Spider-Man and Doctor Strange respectively. The biggest problem is that, right away, continuity and synergy are abandoned in the quest for meaningful stories that ultimately develop into cliches and flat-out boring tales. Spider-Man, as usual, addresses the problem as it hits the streets of Manhattan, but in a morally loaded attempt at transforming an after-school special into a comic book story, Hopeless browbeats readers with the same message again and again. Nothing in “With Great Hate,” save for Spider-Man flippantly mentioning the Red Skull as the root cause, makes this tale a must-read for either Spider-fans or “Avengers & X-Men: AXIS” event evangelists. This could easily have been a story in the 1990s “Sp

While I remember the original “Dark Angel” series being published (with legal issues resulting in the book’s first title “Hell’s Angel” getting removed), and that Bryan Hitch worked on the book, I knew nothing about the character prior to reading “Revolutionary War: Dark Angel.” I appreciate the work that Kieron Gillen and Dietrich Smith put in for introducing Dark Angel to new readers like me, but at the end of the day this is a comic that probably is more entertaining if you were already a fan. “Revolutionary War: Dark Angel” has Gillen spend a fair amount of time introducing the character to the readership; the deal with Mephisto that her father made, the things she has to do in order to pay off the debt, the fluctuating nature of her power levels. If this was the first issue of an all-new “Dark Angel” series, I would have been a little more impressed at how much back story was crammed into this comic because it presumably would be able to move forward from here unencumbered with

“Revolutionary War: Alpha” #1 attempts to bring readers familiar with the stateside Marvel Universe greater exposure to the collection of characters created under the Marvel UK imprint in a story written by Andy Lanning and Alan Cowsill. With art by Rich Elson, colors from Antonio Fabela and letters from Clayton Cowles, the story includes appearances from Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom, both of whom non-initiated readers are most likely familiar with from those characters’ connections throughout the Avengers and X-Men corners of the Marvel U. Unfortunately, Elson’s art is a bit wooden and stiff, with murky action and painfully awkward posing, such as the final page where Captain Britain’s adversary has the good Captain in his clutches. In this panel, Elson has somehow manipulated Brian Braddock’s alter ego into a painfully twisted pose where readers are given a full view of Captain Britain’s back and his face. Elson provides a nice level of setting a surrounding detail and even cr