By Zack Quaintance —  The Walking Dead and Wicked + Divine have ended, and Saga is still on an indefinite hiatus, with no new Brian K. Vaughan comic on the horizon just yet. As a result, there’s been talk in fandom and among the comics media lately about what Image Comics will do to fill these large sales gaps. Essentially, readers and critics have been wondering what the next big book will be from Image. Now that question has an answer — it’s Undiscovered Country.

I had a chance to read the first issue of this new book, which is being written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini, colored by Matthew Wilson, and lettered by Crank! Undiscovered Country is, simply put, one hell of a comic. The book isn’t out until November 6, so I’m keeping specifics in this review to a minimum, as not to spoil anything for anyone (and, trust me, there’s a lot of good stuff in this first issue you want to be surprised by). I’ll note that as has been established by previews, this is a comic about a team of adventures getting into a United States that has been entirely closed off to the rest of the planet for three decades. Other than that, however, I’ll stick to what type of comic this is and what my experience was like reading it. 

Undiscovered Country is a near-future adventure story with plenty of sci-fi elements, the realistic sort that make sense for the time period, which is roughly 40 years in the future. The realism of the sci-fi in the comic (as Snyder points out in the backmatter) owes to the friendship that he and co-writer Soule struck up with a former CIA employee and current CIA advisor, which had opened doors of knowledge into things like extrapolated war games scenarios and future-facing technology being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). As a result, this comic is rich with detail that gives it a complex and immersive feeling, almost novelistic in the scope of the mostly-recognizable world it has built for these events to take place within.

Everything from the problems the characters face, to the tools they have to work with, to the nature of the communications mechanism they possess have clearly been added into the story with great thought, to the point I wasn’t surprised when Snyder also noted in the back matter that the creative genesis of this comic dated back many years.

As far as the plot goes, however, this is different sort of book all together. It’s a high adventure comic of the highest order, setting up exciting scenarios and running its characters through them at an engaging pace that will make you finish the comic as fast as you can before coming right back to it for a second read the next day (or, at least, that’s what I did).

What I found most impressive, though, was how seamlessly the density of information was integrated with speed and excitement of the plot. For this, all the credit is owed to the experience and skill of the creators, from Snyder and Soule, to artists Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini, to colorist Matthew Wilson. These are all folks in the top-tier of the talent that works on modern monthly comics in the direct market, and they combine their ample skillsets here to build a dense and layered world for the a bonkers story of discovery to take place within.

In closing, I’ll mention Snyder’s backmatter essay a third (hat trick!) and final time. In that piece, he directly eludes to the point I was making above — this is a story about isolationist America that has clearly been born out of the combined skillsets of a robust team, it’s a book about damage and sickness grown from selfishness told by an unselfish crew. As a reader of comics and a firm believer that the world is made better when we open ourselves up to others, I’m so happy all indications are that this book is destined to be a massive success. 

Overall: Undiscovered Country is going to be Image’s next big hit. A complex and thoughtful comic told expertly by a team of veteran creators, this book is a dense and thoughtful adventure of the highest order. Let me be clear — you should read this book. 10/10

Undiscovered Country #1
Writer: Scott Snyder & Charles Soule
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Daniele Orlandini
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Crank!
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 11/06/2019

Read more great comic book reviews here!

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