Post Americana

The bad news is that the apocalypse happened and humanity survived.  The worse news is that the special bunker meant to house America’s government didn’t wind up doing that.  The worst news is that this bunker wound up housing a whole bunch of one-percenters who made it in and have been carrying on much as they did before the bombs fell.  Until now, that is.  After venturing out into the wasteland to see what the country is now like, one man has declared himself president with the intent of subjugating the survivors using all the technology that the bunker has at its disposal.  Standing in his way are the techs who stood up to the President when his aims became clear, but they’re going to need some help in order to pull it off.  Help like a cyborg woman whose family was wiped out by this new administration, and who is looking to dish out some payback herself.

“Post Americana” is another post-apocalyptic story in a medium that likes to deliver a couple new ones on a monthly basis.  It also feels fairly close in tone and style to one in particular, that’d be the first volume of “Undiscovered Country,” in how it delivers a wild and crazy vision of our society after everything falls apart.  I’m talking about large feral chickens roaming the landscape and looking for payback.  Automatons that keep our (violent) superhero legacy alive.  Cannibals, too.  You can’t have one of these stories without cannibals, but at least these ones know how to party!

Creator Steve Skroce, who has also given us “Wolverine:  Blood Debt,” the art for “We Stand on Guard,” and storyboards for “The Matrix” and other movies, invests his story with a lot of energy and style.  This is a comic that succeeds mainly because of these two things as you’re constantly wondering what crazy thing Skroce is going to throw at you on the next page.  Which is good, because the story itself follows a lot of predictable beats that you’ll still be able to see coming through the hail of blood and bullets.  It all makes for a solid done-in-one volume that you’ll remember more for its cannibal dinner deathmatch than any larger points it tries to make about humanity and its current state.