Hexagon Bridge

In the year 4040 a parallel dimension was discovered by humans.  Named “The Bridge,” it was initially mapped out by drones before two human cartographers, Jacob and Elena, went in to start exploring it themselves.  Contact with them was eventually lost, but not before their psychic daughter, Adley, learned that they were taken by an A.I. known as Gerardus.  Twelve years later, Adley is ready to start exploring The Bridge herself with the aid of an A.I. created specifically for this task, Staden.  Adly is able to synch with Staden’s mind using her unique gifts and the two of them are ready to embark on this unusual rescue mission, hopefully prepared for whatever it has waiting for them.

“Hexagon Bridge,” from writer/artist Richard Blake, briefly got some Next Big Thing talk ahead of its release before it promptly fell off everyone’s radar.  That’s not because it’s a terrible comic, just one with a chilly emotional center without the big ideas to hold your interest.  The back cover compares it to Jonathan Hickman and Mike Huddleston’s “Decorum,” and while that wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be, it still explored an interesting world and had a lot of fun doing so.  This series feels more akin to Tsutomu Nihei’s “BLAME!” only with a less memorably esoteric world and few action scenes to draw the reader in.

The miniseries does look nice, however.  Blake has an intricate style that, while it isn’t big on spectacle, offers a comfortingly intimate feeling wherever the story takes us.  Be it the countryside of the 4000’s, a version of Italy conjured from memory, or the A.I. imagined cityscapes of The Bridge, the detail he offers is absorbing to take in.  I can’t say that it really elevates the basic, prosaic nature of Adley and Staden’s quest, but maybe Blake can improve on the lack of emotional resonance here in whatever his next comics project will be.