The first volume concludes – and so does the world?
Creative Staff:
Story: Curt Pires
Art: Kevin Zeigler
Colors: Adam Metcalfe
Letters: Colin Bell
What They Say:
Art is a Weapon
An ocean in between the waves.
A threat from another reality. The death of everything. Only the Tomorrows can save us.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Coming from the perspective of someone who has to often wait years for new installments of manga, be they chapters or entire volumes to be translated, a seven month wait for a new chapter of The Tomorrows certainly isn’t bad. I’ve done far, far, worse. Unlike those other books though, Curt Pires is putting the reader through the wringer and you really have to be on your game to grok this book right. I wasn’t able to reread the previous installments but I took a turn through my previous reviews and so much came flooding back alongside reading this book that it already has me craving a masterfully bound hardcover book that I can just curl up with someday. Until then, we have the softcover trade this fall.
The finale to this opening volume, which notes at the end that if cancelled it means the world has ended, is one that goes very big. And it’s able to do that thanks to the addition of Kevin Zeigler on the art with perfect color work by Adam Metcalfe. Though previous installments had their fare share of action, this one is dominated by it throughout and Zeigler works with a lighter and more minimal approach to character design but makes it all the more human because of it and the layouts. We get so many close-ups, so many shots of the eyes into their souls, that even though it’s been months since the last issue you can empathize and understand their emotions completely. As we get Claudius and his group going up against all these new variables that are defending the world ending project, it has a lot of great crescendos as various face-off’s occur and some very deep moments, notably with Claudius and Edie as he manages to draw her back to the truth. That may have felt a little forced in the midst of a fight but it connected beautifully.
When the book shifts to trying to end the doomsday machine that’s been put into action, there’s the requisite “how do we stop a machine with no off button” angle to play. These can be pretty rough elements in a story, as many writers just go for the gag of unplugging it while others go for the smash. Pires and Zeigler get to be beautifully creative here as Claudius comes up with the method of creating a sigil to rewrite the code. This, as it says in the solicitation information, is art as a weapon. And it’s a beautiful sequence as we see how this is put together, the detail of it and the simplicity of it. Combining that with our villain going on about the problems of being a nihilist and why he’s doing all that he’s doing and it’s a wonderful blend and contrast between the two. The sigil creation alone has me wanting to work on creating my own for the next few hours. Art is a weapon, indeed.
In Summary:
Fuck yeah! Damn. This book just moves me. And that’s with this long gap. Pires and Zeigler connect on a great level here in bringing this story to a close in so many ways. There are layers to dig into here, the kind of thing that you really want to be able to sit down and just tear apart in big, broad ways with people and suss out so many meanings – including all the footnotes added for reference. The Tomorrows is not a book that you just casually read. The Tomorrows is a book you damn well sit and consume and then contemplate and discuss for quite some time afterward. I can’t recommend it enough, especially for those that are struggling to find works with real meaning and engagement that will challenge you as a reader.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 15th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
