A Hidden Evil Awakens Beneath a Missile Silo in AWA and Roy Lee’s Chilling New Horror, The Rising

Gregory Widen and Laci transform a decommissioned military base into ground zero for an apocalyptic new nightmare in the latest chapter of The Future of Fear.

Deep beneath the Badlands, something has been waiting and whatever it is clearly did not get the memo that the base was closing.

Just when horror fans thought it might be safe to go underground again, Artists Writers & Artisans (AWA) and Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment, the powerhouse behind Weapons, It, and Barbarian, are preparing to unleash The Rising, the next oversized nightmare in The Future of Fear collection.

Written and created by acclaimed screenwriter, director, and producer Gregory Widen, the mind behind Highlander, The Prophecy, and Backdraft, with artwork by renowned artist Laci (Death Ratio’d, Sherlock Holmes), the chilling 72-page one-shot arrives digitally and wherever comic books are sold on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

Set inside a dying military town buried deep in the Badlands, The Rising begins with the closure of a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile base. For Ray and his daughter, Atty, the shutdown represents more than the end of a military operation—it is the final breath of the town they once called home and their signal to finally move on.

But beneath the abandoned facility, something is waking up.

As the base shuts down and the surrounding community slowly empties, Ray begins detecting strange glitches inside systems that should be permanently decommissioned. Meanwhile, Atty discovers impossible signs of activity involving six coma patients connected to a mysterious accident that occurred decades earlier.

Yeah, because nothing says “pack the car and leave immediately” quite like malfunctioning nuclear systems and coma patients suddenly moving around. Fam, do not investigate the noise. Get in the vehicle and hit the gas!

Instead, Ray and Atty find their plans to leave town ripped apart as the missile base begins reactivating itself in ways that defy logic, science, and every safety protocol ever written. What initially looks like a technical malfunction becomes something far more sinister as an ancient or perhaps entirely unknown evil begins forcing its way toward the surface.

Soon, the fate of one forgotten town becomes secondary to the survival of the entire planet.

The Rising marks a chilling new direction for Widen, whose career has stretched across film, television, and comics. From the immortal mythology of Highlander to the supernatural terror of The Prophecy and the combustible drama of Backdraft, Widen has built his reputation by grounding larger-than-life concepts in deeply human stakes. Here, he takes the terrifying reality of nuclear weapons and transforms it into the foundation for an intimate, escalating horror story.

“I always think the best horror comes from grounded reality,” said Widen. “Being allowed to spend time among the crews actually shutting down a nuclear missile base, including going into the silos and their buried launch centers, I gained both an appreciation and understanding of the complexities of that world that’s allowed me to create a horror story that emerges organically from it. It’s been great having the opportunity for that vision to come to life in this comic.”

That firsthand experience gives The Rising an unsettling layer of authenticity. This is not horror dropped randomly into a cool military location because somebody thought missile silos looked spooky. Widen builds the nightmare from the machinery, isolation, protocols, buried infrastructure, and real-world tension surrounding a decommissioned nuclear facility. The supernatural terror grows naturally from a place already capable of ending civilization with the turn of a key.

You want grounded horror? It does not get much more grounded than being trapped beneath the earth beside a nuclear missile while something impossible crawls through the system.

Laci’s haunting illustrations bring that nightmare to life, merging the crumbling reality of a forgotten small town with the overwhelming scale of existential horror. The world of The Rising feels alien and disturbingly familiar at the same time, transforming cold military corridors, buried launch centers, failing equipment, and empty streets into pieces of a larger nightmare closing around its characters.

Following the debut of Look Out and Kill or Be Killed, The Rising continues The Future of Fear, AWA and Vertigo Entertainment’s cross-platform initiative dedicated to developing the next generation of horror franchises across comics, illustrated storytelling, film, and television.

Each installment introduces a bold new nightmare from acclaimed creators, with AWA and Vertigo Entertainment developing the stories for potential screen adaptations. The result is a unified pipeline giving horror fans the chance to discover terrifying new worlds on the printed page before those nightmares potentially make the jump to screens.

“The most frightening stories are the ones that feel like they could be happening right now, just out of sight,” said Axel Alonso, Chief Creative Officer at AWA. “With this new chapter in The Future of Fear, Gregory and Laci brilliantly transform bold, high-concept horror into something unnervingly intimate, uncovering the uncanny lurking beneath the everyday and making the familiar feel deeply unsettling. With Roy and the team at Vertigo Entertainment, we’re proud to be building a series of stories that push the boundaries of horror to new heights.”

AWA and Vertigo Entertainment are not playing small with this collection. The Rising combines nuclear anxiety, small-town decay, buried trauma, supernatural mystery, and planet-threatening consequences into one massive horror package. It has the intimate desperation of a family trying to escape a dying town, but underneath that human story sits a nightmare powerful enough to make the whole world pay attention.

The Rising is written and created by Gregory Widen, illustrated by Laci, colored by Miroslav Mrva (Marjorie Finnegan, Daredevil), and lettered by AndWorld Design (Beast Mode 510, Batman), with a cover by legendary artist Tim Bradstreet (Look Out, The Punisher).

The 72-page oversized one-shot will be available digitally and in comic shops nationwide on Wednesday, September 23, 2026. Additional titles in The Future of Fear collection will be announced at a later date. Until then, remember: if the abandoned nuclear facility suddenly turns itself back on, that is not a glitch—it is your cue to bounce. Wepa!

For more information on THE RISING, The Future of Fear collection, and other projects, follow AWA Studios on Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and visit AWAStudios.com.