Afterburn #1 – Review

By: Scott Chitwood (Creator & Script), Paul Ens (Script), Wayne Nichols (Pencils), Nick Schley (Inks), Marc Hampson & Andrew Dalhouse (Colors)

I have mixed reactions with this comic. The concept is interesting: a solar flare hits half of the Earth’s surface, killing or mutating that side of the population.

The story starts a year after the disaster and follows a team of bounty hunters trying to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. They meet some mutants and a type of Belloqesque antagonist (for you Indy fans). Some time later, they go on another mission in a flooded Hong Kong, only to find pirates (I don’t know if they are mutants or badly drawn Chinese), and mutated sharks.

The main character survives apocalypse by being in a shielded room in an oil rig. But then he goes out to check on his buddies and exposes himself to the lethal rays. I don’t quite understand his actions, unless the following issues of this book show that he has some kind of superpower radiation. Otherwise, this guy should be crispy by now – I saw Sunshine!

Another question that bothers me is why the mutants don’t sell their treasures to the surviving side of the Earth and make a living out of it. Beats me! The shark scene was pretty ingenious, but the rest of the book feels a bit “off”. I hope that this is a slow start for the series and with issue #2 all the “off-iness” will be addressed. This title has a lot of potential. (Grade: C+)

-Daniel Yanez