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At long last , DC / Vertigo is in the end set to launchHigh Level , an epic adventure that does for cyberpunk whatThe Sandmandid for fantasy . At least , that ’s the plan . But judging by what ’s been show so far , this comic looks up to the task .
There may be one or two expression ofHigh Levelthat palpate familiar , but make no mistake : it bust its influence from Hellenic fantasy , grand adventure , post - apocalyptic survival , and hacker philosophical system on its sleeve in bright , neon letters . Yet from its hardened heroine and her undesirable seeking to lay aside humanity’snewfuture , all the way up to the mythic city for whichHigh Levelis identify , that title is no accident . Vertigo wants everyone watching when they raise the bar for boundary - push science fiction .
candidly , with Rob Sheridan recruited to tell this story , a fifteen - twelvemonth - veteran as Nine Inch Nails ' art director , most medicine fan would downrightexpectthe comic to be pitched as a blend of industrial , cyberpunk , lo - fi , retro - futuristic theme and visuals . Screen Rant had the opportunity to speak with Sheridan about not only those stirring , but just as significantly , what storyHigh Levelisn’t telling . By now , every science fiction fan has an idea of what a post - apocalyptic , harsh wasteland look like . But withHigh Level , Sheridan and his artistic production team are taking that future tense and leaping centuries forward in time :
We ’re call it a post - post - apocalyptic story . The tagline that my editor came up with was ' This is n’t the chronicle of what happened , it ’s the floor of what happens next ' … Beyond a monumental modification to society , an apocalyptic variety , what happens if most of account is score out along the way of life ? It ’s kind of easy to imagine mightily now as we move forward year by twelvemonth , so much of our history , our media , our communication are all being placed in computers , and servers , and the swarm . If all that infrastructure gets erased by spectacular mood change , by aggregative migration , by war , whatever it might be , and then you take several coevals of people just run on utter survival , you lose a flock of history in that unconscious process . And it becomes an unwritten history .
So I ’ve always been entrance by the thought of what would happen when the debris settles a little moment , and multitude begin to produce fresh civilizations . But they did n’t have any of the historic context that we have .
That point is made perfectly well-defined with help from artist Barnaby Bagenda and Romulo Fajardo , Jr. rendering an unforgettable portrait of the Word of God ’s spark advance , Thirteen . As one inhabitant of the world " that comes next , " she muses on a book traded for as entertainment ( when not handling the biological requirement of life sentence on the route ) . A Word of God that sound like The Holy Bible , but is now just one more artefact of a world that nobody remembers . Take a look :
It ’s here where the story ofHigh Levelstrikes its chord of both acquaintance and reinvention , not often see in the post - apocalypse genre of movies , TV appearance , telecasting games , or comical Koran . There , the ones who remember what powerfulness used to be lust it now that they ’re given a guess . But what would that ability start to search like once a new society began to work up beneath it , around it , or isolate as far from it as potential ?
I wish I could remember where I take heed this , it was on like a Star Trek comment track . Some futurist was talking about how we always have this idea that when society rebuild itself after traumatic events , like really traumatic result , that it would look more or less the same . And the realism , he was say , is that it really would n’t take care anything like what we have now . Because when you remove all those asylum , and preconceived notion , and barrier , and regulation … and give man a chance to rebuild itself purely based on its motive and its instinct , it might attend totally different than what life looks like now . That ’s the inspiration for where the tale begins in High Level .
Nothing tally up the melodic theme of being motivated by pauperism and instincts thanHigh Level ’s Pb , Thirteen . The plot synopsis for the series promises that she will be unwittingly drafted into an larger-than-life , expansive journey . But our preview page below ( showing Bagenda and Fajardo ’s unique style ) proves that ’s not at all the kind of impression she give when first introduced .
There ’s no warranty thatHigh Level ’s speculative , retro - futuristic narration and voiceless sci - fi will prove the success that Vertigo has positioned it to be – after all , the genre of dusty , coarse-grained , marauder - fill , post - apocalyptic wastelands is democratic for a reason . But there ’s no room to miss how big a swing this Christian Bible is take at its first pitch shot . Sheridan intends to make the most of this chance , and ensure fans that he lie with exactly what sort of chronicle he hopes to tell . And just as important , whynowis the time it require to be evidence :
I hope that [ reader ] come out from it with a lot of questions , and a lot of wonderment . Because we have so much more of a write up to evidence and this was very much about planting seeds in this first issue . I would want them to start intend about what it has to say about where we are right now . Because there ’s going to be some big radical about that running through the whole comic .
One of my favorite things of all time is The Twilight Zone . There is no good example of science fiction talking about thing that it was n’t allowed to . You watch that now , and it ’s idea - blow that it was allowed to air on meshing television at the time … They did that by tricking the censors , by enjoin fantasy stories that were really telling stories about decent now . I think that ’s the best that sci - fi does , and that ’s what we hope to do with High Level .
The hacker devotee wo n’t want much more recommend toorder their transcript ofHigh Level # 1(arriving this Wednesday ) . But if any are still on the fence , quell tuned for our full consultation with Rob Sheridan . In the meantime , take a smell at Vertigo ’s promotional notice teasing the character of just the first worldHigh Levelwill introduce , and the prescribed synopsis below .
Hundreds of twelvemonth after the worldly concern ended and human beau monde was reconstruct from scar , multitude continue to fight and struggle for canonic resource to pull through . But there is one shoes that is safe from this conflict — High Level — the unadulterated Utopia metropolis at the top of the world . And while most dream of one day working hard enough to ascend to this life of luxury and comfortableness , Thirteen is not one of them . A runner by business deal , Thirteen is just all right where she is — until now .
high-pitched Level # 1will be useable February 20th , 2019 in your local comic shop class , and digitally fromDC / Vertigo .
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