Tomorrow #1 is published by Dark Horse Comics. It is written by Peter Milligan with art by Jesús Hervás and colors by James Devlin.
Tomorrow #1 is strangely (I’d wager intentionally) relevant to what’s happening right now, as in 2020, though it’s something humanity has had to contend with many a time. We are dealing with a potential virus that no one knows how to cure and of course, people aren’t all handling it well. Relatively speaking, this is nothing compared to something like The Plague, which killed an estimated 25 million people, but it is scary when a disease we don’t understand starts to spread and it only gets scarier as more people die. What happens though when the spread of the disease and the death rate rise at the same time?
In this modern, alternate world, a Russian computer virus is able to jump between machine and humanity. In particular, it’s the adults who are infected and killed within minutes of exposure. This is basically thrusting the entire world into a Children of the Corn situation – kids are left to take care of and govern themselves. In particular, our focus is centered a pair of twins, musical prodigy Oscar and his twin sister Cira. Oscar and his mother flew across the country to attend an important cello audition, one that if he passed, would enable Oscar to attend an incredibly prestigious music college. However, it’s during his playing that the plague strikes, leaving Oscar stranded in New York and Cira alone in LA. As Oscar attempts to get back to his sister, Cira tries to survive the violence that has already begun to take place around her.
One of the first things I noticed about Oscar is that he’s not your stereotypical lead. He doesn’t expressly say it, but I gather he is on the autism spectrum given his aversion to physical contact and difficultly understanding other human’s emotions and body language/facial expressions. He even notes he was told his cello playing was perfect but lacked emotion. The thing Oscar cares the most about in the world is his twin, whom he has an actual psychic connection with. Which is extra nice because right now, they are both utterly alone so being able to “see” each other and speak one on one is going to be really beneficial once things get worse. Which they definitely will. But then, perhaps, they will get better.
Tomorrow #1 immediately begs the question, what would happen without adults? Sure we’ve seen the movies where the kid wishes their parents away but learns they need them and through some magic/science is able to get them back. But what if they don’t come back? The thing is too, we don’t know the age cut off for these “adults”. Is it 18? 21? I knew some idiots when I was those ages, but I also knew some insanely smart people and with how much more kids have been learning in school and from technology, would the remaining generation really not know how to function? I think Milligan will be exploring the latter, and I can’t wait to read it, especially with the stunning artistic talents of Jesús Hervás and James Devlin.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
Make sure to pick up a copy of Tomorrow #1 from your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
