Comic Review: Higher Earth #1

Comic: Higher Earth #1Written By: Sam HumphriesPencils By: Francesco BiaginiPublisher: Boom! StudiosRelease Date: OUT NOW IN STORES & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD (VIA http://www.boom-studios.com/)

rating: 3.5

Boom! Studios launch a new series that boasts big scale sci-fi and multiple Earths to travel around. The offical synopsis goes:

Heidi, a girl born in garbage. Rex, a soldier gone rogue. The only thing between them and their destiny is an empire of a hundred different Earths, across a hundred alternate timelines. One majestic planet dominates them all: HIGHER EARTH.

Literally starting with our lead character falling out of the sky, it takes a good nine pages to work out what the hell is going on here. A ginger girl in a mecha-bear costume, sword fights and toy collections all feature and other than some sort of post apocalyptic landscape full of junk very little is served up in the way of detail .

Once the explanations arrive and Rex lets us know that he can jump between Earths and not all Earths are like this one, the story kicks off. We're presented with cool phrases like "Space is dead" and "You are illegal on this Earth" and once the solider on Rex's trail turns up and Heidi is given the choice to follow Rex somewhere else this first issue offers up a sense of the mileage the story may cover. Of course being a first issue, I won't give anything away but within the fast paced first issue I like Rex and Heidi, despite their fairly cliche sci-fi characters.

The set up seems fairly routine so far, with jumping between different versions of Earth being a much tried and tested formula but with all that said I'm intrigued as to where bad ass Rex has come from and what he's hoping to acheive and Heidi, a girl who's taken her first step on what I can only imagine is a hero's journey at this stage seems wide eyed enough to form a relationship with Rex that could hold some appeal.

Art wise the comic is solid but never all that remarkable. Faces are all the typical angry or scowling with only a slight glimmer of a human response to the unfolding situation but hey, this is an issue #1, a glimpse of the whatever Higher Earth might evolve into and so far I'm in. The cliffhanger alone has me at least intrigued as to what comes next and where this newly created duo might go.

See you again next month Higher Earth.