Review - Debris #1

If it's not one thing it's something else. The plight of humanity's future is quite bleak it seems, with our race facing robots, intergalactic threats or even plagues in the near future. It's a tried and true scenario, even on display in Debris #1 from Image Comics.

The first issue is written by Kurtis J. Wiebe, with illustrations by Riley Rossmo, letters by Ed Brisson and colors by Owen Gieni.

The book opens with three avios traveling at a brisk pace. Don't know what an avio is? You will. You'll also know that the world Calista and Maya live in feature many other creaters of the avio's ilk. Creatures like Jormungand, a Colossal.

Calista is struggling to protect her village from the Umbra, great beings that are nearing it everyday. As a protector, if Calista fails then the village is doomed. Maya is training under Calista to take over the mantle of Protector eventually and, by the end of the issue, the people need all the help they can get.

Any book that features giant, mechanized beings is ok in my book. Wiebe's choice to make the Umbra a mechanical race is awesome and fits within the scope of the book's title (Debris). Calista comes off as the even-keeled, wise master, while Maya has the brash and bold apprentice role down pretty well.

There's also a simple elegance to the way Wiebe tells the story in the first issue. He lays out the setting, gives the reader the scenario and then provides a motive for Maya for the remainder of the series. What the Umbra are being called for is still murky, but if all that was revealed in the first issue you probably wouldn't stick around now would you?

Rossmo's art is appropriate for the story. It's almost dystopian in its presentation, without being overly eccentric. This is a world full of wastelands and Rossmo does a great job capturing that despair. Even the Umbra (and, more specifically, Jormungand) are depicted as monstrous mechanical beasts, efficiently menacing.

The premise behind Debris #1 isn't anything new, but Wiebe and Rossmo have infused it with enough imagination that it could be something different. Where the story goes from here is anyone's guess and why the Umbra want to destroy the last human settlement is a mystery. A mystery that could be entertaining to unravel.

Debris #1 is in stores now with interiors below.