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Curt Pires' The Tomorrows is Everything You've Been Looking For

By Andy Frisk
September 6, 2015 - 19:14

As the Big Two's (Marvel and DC Comics') books get further and further away from the originality, and quality storytelling, that made them so compelling in the first place, writers like Curt Pires (POP, The Fiction) and publishers like Dark Horse Comics are dropping titles like The Tomorrows on us that, while not being totally original, are leaps and bounds better than the current superhero fare.

The Tomorrows is the story of a corporate-fascist dominated near future where art is illegal (and therefore doubles as resistance), a group of revolutionaries are trying to save the world, and although the state of the world might look bleak, there is still hope. Illegally practicing artist Zoey Holloway is rescued by Tomorrows' team leader Claudius from a death sentence which is about to be carried out by the the corporate controlled state's law enforcement robots. She's quickly exposed to an underground resistance movement that's populated by "artistic terrorists" who are attempting to "free people" and "free information." It's a noble organization with a noble cause, but in the world of The Tomorrow's the status quo is paramount, and evil corporate tycoon Mr. Huges will spare no expense to preserve it.

Curt Pires melds the best aspects of The Matrix, The Invisibles together and mixes them with several other pop culturally significant sci-fi elements and delivers the series we have all been waiting for since the demise of Grant Morrision's The Invisibles (Morrison's Nameless, which showed early potential to succeed The Invisibles, has started to flounder after its strong start). There's the theme of the potential "chosen one" in Zoey, the wise (and wise cracking-not unlike King Mob) leader in Claudius (he even wields a "lazer-sword" like some other wise leaders) and strange dream sequences mixed with plenty of pop philosophy and action. There's also some smart humor woven throughout that satirically bites...but not too harshly.



The Tomorrows shares some themes with another brilliant work currently being published, Greg Rucka's Lazarus, but The Tomorrows is filled with more sci-fi whimsy and way more snarky. When paired with Lazarus though, The Tomorrows makes for just as smart a read, albeit a slightly more lighthearted and hopeful one. Lazarus is the best written book being published now, and The Tomorrows has the same potential that Lazarus did when it was launched.

An interesting aspect of The Tomorrow's is that, at least at this point, the series doesn't have a regular artist. Jason Copeland handled the artistic duties on the first issue and Alexis Ziritt (Space Riders) handles the second. The stark differences between the two's styles does nothing to disrupt the flow of the story. I seriously thought it might. Pires' vision of this futuristic, and near dystopian, world remains intact from issue #1 to issue #2. In fact, where #1 was pretty heavy on the set up, which made it a slightly rote read, issue #2 deepened the mythology of this world and made it even more interesting. Pires truly has a vision for his story that makes it a global one, as well as one that turns out to be a bit more frightening than at first revealed.

Maybe I'm one of the few left who are still pining for more Matrix movies and further adventures of The Invisibles. Somehow I doubt it though. We will most likely never see King Mob or Neo back in action, and rightly so as their stories reached their logical conclusion. We do have the further adventures of Zoey and her new found friends in The Tomorrows though, and that's more than enough reason to keep reading. 

 

Rating: 9 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12