This week I had the privilege to review a new comic series created by one of my all-time favorite writers, J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski created one of the most influential science fiction television shows in Babylon 5, a series that I’ve re-watched multiple times, and had an iconic run on Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man, where he created such characters as Ezekial and Morlun.
As a huge fun, I was thrilled to read Synthetics from Dark Horse Comics and excited to enter an all-new science fiction universe from a master of the genre. Synthetics presents a near-future Earth crumbling under a climate crisis. The Earth is filling with “dead zones,” and the human race is on the brink of destruction with only a few decades left. With the end of all civilization in sight, memories have become valuable commodities. No time to complete that bucket list? Just download the memories of someone who already checked that adventure off. The narrative is divided among several leads. We follow: Nick and Denise, two Chicago cops busting an illegal memories sale; Dr. Mehta who believes humanity’s survival relies on genetic experimentation; reporter Blake Wohl who believes Dr. Mehta is involved in unethical research; and Hernando Montoya who, unbeknownst to the world, has already begun creating the next phase in human evolution.
That’s a lot of world building for one issue, though Straczynski manages to give each character a moment for readers to get to know and care about them. The large cast allows Straczynski to explore many different issues that our society is facing today. It’s frightening to think that the world of Synthetics could be the world my own children inherit one day. Our climate crisis isn’t improving, and, at some point, like the denizens inhabiting the world of Synthetics, we will be beyond the brink of survival. And yes, this book is bleak, but Straczynski is trying to shock his audience into waking up and taking action before it’s too late. As the title suggests, this is a series that will also explore the morality of genetic engineering and the effects that may have upon our very identities as humans. We could splice out genetic abnormalities and “defects,” but, in the end, will the result still be a human being as we know it? And who are we to judge what constitutes a “defect?” Can it really be considered survival if we leave all that we are behind?
Tony Parker provides the artwork and brings this new world to life. Parker and colorist Carrie Strachan start right off the bat proving why they are the combo of choice for this series. The issue opens within a surrealistic virtual world that Nick, the Chicago cop, is possibly addicted to. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but the opening full-page panel seemed to be an homage to Captain Sheridan’s encounter with the First One in Babylon 5, where his mind struggled to comprehend a being well-beyond humans on the evolutionary scale. This scene hints at a tangential plot that is only briefly touched upon, but it does allow Parker to show how adept he is with capturing emotion in his work. You could feel one character’s fear emanating from the page. These opening pages hint to the reader that maybe what we are about to witness isn’t the full story or even the truth about the world of Synthetics.
Synthetics promises to be a thoughtful series that forces readers to look at the faults in our own world. Like most of Straczynski’s writing, we are given a fully developed and vibrant world to explore. An excellent and engaging pilot episode. I can’t wait to see where this series will take me.
Creative Team: J. Michael Straczynski (Creator, Writer), Tony Parker (Illustrator), Carrie Strachan (Colors), Steve Dutro (Letterer)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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