By Zack Quaintance — There is an evolution happening among sci-fi comic books, wherein stories are almost aggressively pushing each other to find unexplored new ground. That sometimes means tone (Wasted Space, for example, has done a wonderful job with this) and at other times that means a novel plot twist (Vagrant Queen I think fits here) or new take on an older concept (Protector comes to mind) or just flat-out amazing intricate art execution (see Little Bird and Tartarus). 

No One’s Rose #1 — a new Vault comic from writers Emily Horn & Zac Thompson, artist Alberto Jimenez-Alburquerque, colorist Raul Angulo, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou) is, perhaps, all of the above. 

Above all, however, what stood out to me about No One’s Rose #1 is that it extrapolates timely ideas and existential threats starring down humanity right now in 2020 into a type of sci-fi world I’ve personally never seen before. Zac Thompson has called it Solar Punk, and what that means is that it takes into account all our present environmental concerns and still looks at the future through an optimistic lens. After everything that has happened (and, quite frankly, continues to happen) in the world in the last few years, I’m hard-pressed to think of a genre that sounds as refreshing and welcome as this one.

All of that, however, wouldn’t matter much if the execution of this book wasn’t so damn good. The artwork is stylish, imaginative, engrossing, and just outright phenomenal. The artwork is also versatile, quick to impress in equal parts with something like a crest on a door or a exo suit design for a class full of children as it is with a giant awesome splash page of the ecosystem within which the characters live. Artist Jimenez-Alburquerque has an aesthetic that blends stylized, almost manga-esque character designs with intricate and detailed linework — think something like Isola (the most beautiful book in shops today) meets Russell Dauterman-lite. The linework here is that assured and crisp.

I also thought this book does what a lot of books published by Vault do really well — it nails its opening. Thompson and Horn pen a fantastic set of page-one captions that work as essentially a thesis statement, while at the same time orienting the reader. Here it is…

“In the past, our relationship with nature was rooted in a lie. We said caring for the environment was an act of altruism. But having empathy for the planet was about all of us. Today we sustain a delicate ecology. Both for the planet’s survival...and for ours.”

Whoa. Goosebumps. It’s as good of an opening set of prose as I’ve seen in any comic in sometime. It has a smart point of view, a great sense of poetry, and a hint of the past, present, and future. Simply put, this is the type of debut that is entertaining while also instilling a sense of trust in the reader that everything coming next will be just as good if not better. I would guess many readers are like me and unfamiliar with the concept of solar punk. Well folks, I think we’re about to get an ideal introduction and it’s going to be a great read from month-to-month.

Overall: A good-looking and smart comic with a strong point of view that is at once cautionary and optimistic, No One’s Rose #1 has all the pieces to blossom (sorry!) into the next big sci-fi book. 9.8/10

No One’s Rose #1
Writer: Emily Horn & Zac Thompson
Artist: Alberto Jimenez-Alburquerque
Colorist: Raul Angulo
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Vault Comics
Price: $3.99
"Centuries after the fall of the Anthropocene, the last vestiges of human civilization are housed in a massive domed city powered by renewable energy, known as The Green Zone. Inside lives teenager Tenn Gavrilo, a brilliant bio-engineer who could rebuild the planet. But there's one problem: her resentful brother Seren is eager to dismantle the precarious Utopia. From the minds of Zac Thompson (X-Men, Yondu) and debut writer Emily Horn with artist Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque (Letter 44, Avengers ) comes a gorgeous and green solar-punk world filled with strange biotechnology, harsh superstorms, and divisive ideologies-ideologies that will tear Tenn and Seren down to their roots as they fight for a better Earth."
Release Date: March 25, 2020

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.