Undiscovered Country Volume 2 is published by Image Comics, written by Charles Soule and Scott Snyder, layouts by Giuseppe Camuncoli, finishes by Leonardo Marcello Grassi, colors by Matt Wilson, and letters by CRANK! Return to the United States of America where even time itself is broken and the 13 remaining colonies have walled themselves off from each other.
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Previously, a group of individuals was invited to the shores of the US with the promise of receiving a cure for a deadly virus that is spreading across the globe at an unprecedented rate. It has been 30 years since America had closed its borders, and in that time, no one came out and no one went in. Upon arriving, however, the team quickly realized that the America they’d expected had been abandoned long ago. Now they were in the colony zone of Destiny. They were met by all kinds of monstrosities from giant land-based fish, genetically altered humans, and rolling fortresses. After a series of events, the team boarded a hidden train and escaped the zone through the barrier, and were on their way to Unity.
Now in Undiscovered Country Volume 2, we witness the glories of Unity through their technological advances to create a veritable Utopia. As the team investigates the vast expanse they realize all is not as it seems and what the population had to sacrifice to get them here.
So I will just come right out and say it, Soule and Snyder are utter madmen. The tonal shift from the Destiny zone to the Unity zone couldn’t be more different. Destiny was a land of lawlessness, unadulterated freedom, and a land gone wild with experimentation. Destiny was dog eat dog. Whereas Unity maintains a peaceful image while they embrace innovation and technology in harmony as a society. Everyone here works together for the greater good. Then, the whole volume drastically shifts when the Destiny man walks upon the land.
From here on out, the face of Unity is revealed, and there are some downright horrific reveals. Snyder and Soule must have woken up and been in some chaotic moods to be able to put this whole story together. The combined effort from the issues just begs the question, what happened to America to get it to this point? Here is the joy of Undiscovered Country—for every snippet of information they give you, it opens up another 10 doors of urgent questions.
The combined artwork from Camuncoli and Marcello Grassi is again such a striking contrast from what the two created in the first volume. Combined with the coloring work by Wilson, you have a completely different landscape. What is unique about this volume is the seemingly tangible structures, and people for that matter, instantly changing to fluid wires as the molecules around them transform into something else entirely. For me, it evoked images from Tron, with a virtual world where anything you can think of you can create from the particles around you.
Where the volume gets particularly entertaining is after the introduction of a foreign species, the virus; the Destiny man. This Utopia is suddenly overcome with an invading malware made live, and where we had the placid white, calming images, the pages are now filled with sharp entities of black and red bent on destruction.
The lettering was spot on by CRANK! given that the issue was heavily lined with dialogue. The placing for the speech bubbles allows the eye to swiftly follow the pace and the flow of the issue. I particularly love the disparity in the style of the speech bubbles between those when the Destiny man speaks and when the leader of Unity, Dr. Naira Jain, talks.
Undiscovered Country is a concept that is so perfectly deranged it has to be read to be believed. Even reading back through my synopsis, it appears to be so disturbing. The fact is though, this story is absolutely engrossing. We as the readers are the team of explorers; we react as they do and right now they are mice in a maze just traveling the spiral hoping to survive. Undiscovered Country Volume 2 is a completely engrossing volume, and this comic series is not nearly lauded as much as it should be!
Undiscovered Country Volume 2 is available in comic stores now.
Undiscovered Country Volume 2
TL;DR
We as the readers are the team of explorers; we react as they do and right now they are mice in a maze just traveling the spiral hoping to survive. Undiscovered Country Volume 2 is a completely engrossing volume, and this comic series is not nearly lauded as much as it should be!
