Undiscovered Country vol. 2: Unity

Vol. 1 was a rollicking good time as writers Scott Snyder and Charles Soule established their vision of a world that America cut itself off from.  When a specific group found their way back in, we found a vision of the American frontier by way of “Mad Max.”  It was as fun as it sounds, and vol. 2, unfortunately doesn’t quite keep up the momentum.  That’s because “Unity” in this version of America is its technology-driven utopia, where everything is made right by innovation.  Every inch of it is ruled, and controlled, by the benevolent Dr. Naira Jain, who is keen on the travelers picking her land as the most worthwhile one to Aurora.  Though everything seems really great on the surface, anyone who has seen “Jurassic Park” or “Soylent Green” knows two things:  That any amazing scientific achievement in fiction is either built on something terrible, or destined to go wrong at some point.

I won’t tell you which vision that Snyder and Soule subscribe to, though I will say that they’re a couple of overachievers in that regard.  What they don’t do here is find a novel spin on either of these setups.  Things go bad.  Truths are revealed.  Lots of stuff blows up on the way to the volume’s end.  It’s kind of disappointing, considering the talent involved, but it’s not a total loss.  The writers offer further insight into how their version of America came to be, interesting setup for future stories, and some quality spectacle as things start blowing up.  In that regard, layout artist Giuseppe Camuncoli and finisher Leonardo Grassi deliver some pretty epic techno-throw-downs at the end, while balancing for the human drama at the end.  Even if this volume does disappoint in terms of the story it’s telling, it at least has the decency to end on an appropriate note.  That would be “Possibility” as vol. 3 looks to take us on an adventure.  A pirate adventure!