Review: Neon Future #1

Smart Sci-Fi is an absolute treasure. When you get smart Sci-Fi from one of the geniuses in the world of electronic music, such as Steve Aoki, you not only strike gold but do so with unmatched style and creativity.

Neon Future #1 (Impact Theory) brings readers a near future America divided by fear of technology and automation. In an effort to fight mass unemployment and recession, the authoritarian government in the US has enacted Article 10, which is simply known as “The Return”“. The goal is to return the country to a better place, but to do so, no advanced technology is allowed.

The Return further divides the population into classes. There are now battles between groups who have augmented themselves with advanced technology, and those who are untouched, or authentic. Out of this strife, a rebellion known as Neon Future is created. This group simply wants to protect those who are oppressed and create a better world through technology.

This first issue follows the story of Clay Campbell, a huge TV star who captures augmented humans for his program. Campbell dies, and his lifeless body is captured by Neon Future operatives, augmented, and brought back to life. He now gets to experience first-hand the abuse that is inflicted upon people who embrace higher technology. All this, and we“re only on the first issue.

One of the things I like about the story is how very well the world is created. Everything feels painfully familiar. The story is written close enough to where we are today, that if feels it“s only a few chapters ahead of the real world we“re living in today. There are already people who are bio-hacking or grinding to find the next step in human evolution, and we of course see people every day who make it their job to break us all into small controllable groups. It“s haunting how real this story feels.

The script written by Jim Krueger and Tom Bilyeu is award worthy. This story gives you the feel of Ex Machina and Ghost In The Shell, with a bit of Blade Runner added to the mix. They created the story along with Steve Aoki, Matt Colon, Samantha Levenshus, and Dana Brawer to have such intricacies that I felt like I was simply picking up a new arc of a well-established series that has been in production for years.

Artists Neil Edwards, Jheremy Raapack, Inker Keith Champagne, Colorist Abraham Lee and letterer Clem Robins have taken the story and turned it into a true achievement in sequential art. The work of Abraham Lee especially stands out to me. This is a masterpiece in comic book coloring. The art jumps from the page like highly charged electrons. I could not have imagined a better marriage of story and art.

This is a new series that needs to be followed. If you“re into close to life future worlds, cyber punk, bio-hacking, or just amazing storytelling, you“ll find something here to enjoy. After reading this issue, I found myself going down a rabbit hole online researching the fusion of biological life and technology. When I was finished, I realized this may be a great story, or it very well could be a cautionary tale we leave to our children to solve. Maybe it“s both.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Neon Future was created by Aoki, Eisner Award winner Jim Krueger and Impact Theory founder Tom Bilyeu.

(W) Jim Krueger, Tom Bilyeu, Steve Aoki, Matt Colon, Samantha Levenshus, Dana Brawer (A) Neil Edwards (A/CA) Jheremy Raapack

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Bryan Spaulding

In his free time, other than reading comic books, Bryan enjoys listening to his ever growing record collection and driving his 27 year old roadster named Mingo.