A drought-stricken future has made snowfall rare, precious, and controlled. For ten years the fate of mankind has rested in the hands of the Cooperative States of America and the Hazeltyne Corporation. But, when a terrorist known as the White Wizard reappears to wreak havoc again, Inspector Davitka Deal is sent to track him down before the death toll rises. Unfortunately, college student Anthony Farrow has found him first, and he is not what he expected.
This second issue finds Anthony hovering between life and death while Inspector Deal returns to New York to report on her findings on the snowfall at the New Mercy settlement and the bombing which followed. An enhanced human with cybernetic implants, Inspector Deal soon discovers that the Inquisitors find her performance lacking and accuse her of being disloyal to the Cooperative States and to Hazeltyne. To her surprise, one of the Inquisitors, Assessor Black, uses her enhancements against her to not only reveal who the White Wizard is, but to send her on a secret mission to find and subdue him.
This issue surprised me in a good way. I had assumed that Inspector Deal was a willing tool of Hazeltyne, but this issue slowly revealed that she is much more than that. She is loyal, but not an unthinking automaton of the ruling class. Inspector Deal actually cares about the White Wizard’s victims and while trying to do what’s best for them runs smack into a political feeding frenzy. (I am curious as to why all the Inquisitors are white and bald though.) Anthony’s visions of a little girl add another level of mystery and intrigue that I look forward to learning more about. For a serious sci-fi story, it does a terrific job of integrating fairy tale undertones in both the art and writing.
Written by Joe Harris with art by Martín Morazzo, this is a continuing series from Image Comics.