REVIEW: ‘Undiscovered Country,’ Issue #2

Undiscovered Country #2 is co-written by Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini, coloring by Matt Wilson, and lettering by Crank! and published by Image Comics. After crash landing into the fortressed borders of America, the international team of scientists and diplomats sent to find a cure for a global plague find instead a far stranger nation than they ever imagined. Divided by a massive series of spiraling walls, the U.S.A is far from a shining beacon on the hill. The mutant warlord known as The Destiny Man lays claim to the outer edges. Leading an army of genetically modified war beasts, The Destiny Man holds the key to the American Spiral, at whose source the team hopes to find the promised cure.

There’s still a LOT of things we don’t know about this new America. Undiscovered Country#2 doesn’t give the game away this early in the series. But it does answer a few lingering questions from last issue‘s rocking ending. Of course, for every answer it provides, issue number two leaves readers with twice as many questions in their place.

One question Snyder and Soule do address in Undiscovered Country #2? Which characters get to sit in the protagonist’s chair? Not every sci-fi ensemble adventure has a lead character. Some have more than one! This issue retains the ensemble cast of explorers and diplomats we met in issue number one. But by issue’s end, Snyder and Soule make it clear that the Graves siblings have lead roles in this adventure.

In fact, Undiscovered Country #2 opens with a scene from the Graves’ childhood in American Heartland. We meet the siblings playing a game, which comes to a halt when the pair find their parents packing. We also meet a young Sam Elgin, the mysterious Uncle Sam looking weirdo whose invitation to the world set this adventure in motion. A brief look into the past, the opening gives us a picture of regular domestic life. The mutant raiders, elephantine land shrimp and other genetic monsters seem all the more alien set against a memory of happier days.

The flashback also gives us a better picture of Daniel Graves. Besides the fact that he and his sister Charlotte were two of the last people to leave America before it sealed its borders, Undiscovered Country hasn’t told us much about Daniel before now. An international fugitive, Daniel Graves is one of the few people to have nearly broken into the country and lived to tell the tale. In Undiscovered Country #2 that status comes in handy, as both world factions court Daniel for his allegiance and expertise. Daniel’s true colors come out on display by issues end in a bold finale that will have readers clawing at their pull lists.

Undiscovered Country #2 brings Snyder and Soule’s twisted map of America into full focus. Part adventure, part commentary, this comic promises a wild ride along the American Spiral. I can’t wait to see where the spiral takes Undiscovered Country next.