This series just didn't click with me the first time I read it (or started to). After an issue or two I decided to set it aside to read sometime when I'm more in the mood, now that I had a better idea of what it was like. Then last week, The Justice Warriors OGN "Vote Harder" shipped and I was in the mood to read that, so I figured this would be a good time to catch up on v1. The setting is Bubble City...
"Behold, Bubble City: the first perfect city. Inside its protective shell, a bustling metropolis flourishes. It's a city of equality, diversity, and prosperity. And it's a city with no crime. None. Whatsoever. But just outside the Bubble's enviro-shield is the Unihabited Zone, where mutants squat in the husk of the old world. Some choose to live in peace and try to earn their way into The Bubble. But many languish in the rotten cul-de-sac of crime. The Bubble city PD polices the Zone. they build community, keep order... and protect the population from themselves."
The setting reminds me a bit of Cynosure and The Pit with a bit of The Forbidden Zone thrown in as well. The story and art style is somewhat reminiscent of a cross between Mystery Men and Top Ten. The two main characters are the hard-bitten veteran Swamp Cop and his rookie partner Schitt, whose job it is to keep the mutant Uzzers under control.
- When Officer Rogers is killed by a self-driving bus, his traumatized partner Swamp Cop must train a replacement, the naïve rookie Schitt.
- Inside the Bubble the ruling Prince spends public funds on a double-price buy-back of his low-selling album, spurring impoverished Uzzers to overwhelm the record stores.
- The government app designed to funnel these buy-back funds to the Uzzers crashes.
- Who crashed it? With his dying breath, an app technician names someone--or something--called "Libra."
- In the wake of the crash, a new financial bubble makes bread too valuable to eat.
- Excluded from the bread windfall, angry Uzzers stage a revolt, led by Libra.
I liked Justice Warriors much better the second time through. It is satire, obviously, and won't be to everyone's taste, but I liked it.
Replies
VOTE HARDER:
"It's election time in Bubble City, the ultra-safe enclave for the rich, surrounded by the dangerous mutant district called the Uninhabited Zone. Veteran officer Swamp Cop is pulled into a clandestine operation, a violent mission that will put him on a collision course with his beloved partner Schitt."
This "OGN" was obviously oroginally intended to be a five-issue minie series (each chapter/issue has its own cover), but I suppose the decision was made to go straight to tpb so the whole thing would be out in time for the election. There's a pull-quote on the actual cover: "Savage, brilliant, funny as hell in a way that will make you uncomfortable and bitter, and you'll be better for it. Laugh it up, Chuckles, we're all goin' to hell!" That pretty much sums it up.