Publisher: Image
Writer: Asmus Boyd
Artist: Infurnari Keatinge
Colourist: Sebela Williamson
Release Date: Out Now!
Price: Print $3.99/Digital $1.99

As opening images go, a naked woman in a mask and cape is pretty classy. No, it’s not the latest Wonder Woman costume makeover, although her creator, William Moulton Marston, would probably approve most heartily if that was the case.

Instead, this is the opening salvo of Evolution #1. A cracking start, but then we’re told by the guy in the Friar Tuck outfit that it’s time to end the world, which takes the edge off it a bit. We then get a round trip of key players: Dr. Hurley, who may or may not be losing his mind, but he definitely has patients with weird symptoms that makes him think some sort of shadowy conspiracy is afoot.

Sister Hannah who confronts a German speaking wild man dressed in Y-fronts in a church in Italy, only to have him mutate into some sort of diseased monster before blowing his brains out and Claire, a film fan who has lost both her parents but has found a can of mysterious film that the mysterious Mr. Hurwitz, a maker of 1970’s ‘boob movies’, her description, not mine, is looking for. When Claire delivers the can of film to Hurwitz, that’s when things really hot up and Dr. Hurley has a pet theory about the symptoms he’s been seeing that spells trouble with a capital yuck for all of us. And what exactly does the word ‘Praegressus’ mean?

Probably not what you think. Asmus Boyd has done a fine job of misdirection in the premiere issue of Evolution #1,throwing in elements that could lead in any direction, including down the rabbit hole. By the final page of Evolution #1you think you have a handle on where this thing is heading, but I’m willing to bet the surprises are far from over. Intelligent, distinctively drawn by Infurnari Keatinge, and crying out for a movie tie-in. All round classy stuff.

 

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve