Nocterra, a post-apocalyptic world where endless night transforms any living thing into nightmares
The team of Scott Snyder, Tony S Daniel, and Tomeu Morey take us on a ride where our world has been plagued by eternal darkness in Nocterra. The sun has been blocked out and anyone caught in the darkness too long begins to transform into dark monstrous creatures and the event will be known as the Big PM. As many world-ending situations go, we have some semblance of what has considered normal life moving forward.
Our protagonists Val Riggs AKA Sun Dog, she and her brother Emory survived the early moments of the Big PM and are now living the only way they can. Val is now a transporter between safe zones any area that has been able to keep consistent lighting to keep any of the dark creatures away. We get a glimpse of the horrors they are currently in during her mission ferrying a number of humans through a hot zone. Watching Val make it through a moment of poor judgment from a passenger we see that she has plenty of experience in handling her new life.
As I mentioned the outposts are lit 24/7 as long as the lights are on they are safe and of course there are protocols to keep anyone infected out of the safe space. This brings us to Emory, he is shown to be very adept with creating new light tech to help his sister on her dangerous drive between towns. But underneath Emory is shown to be fighting the infection, and with what seems to be a limited understanding of the transformations. He is still undergoing some treatments.
By this point, we meet Augustus and Bailey looking to hire Val’s services. They claim to be from somewhere that natural sunlight still exists and need to return there. What they don’t tell Val is that they’re also on the run from Blacktop Bill. After showing other ferrymen at the depot that he means business he also recruits them into tracking Val so he can capture Augustus, the man that supposedly blocked out the sun.
Overall there’s still plenty of story to tell here. I do feel that the pacing is a bit fast but I’m not sure of the size of this complete run will be and that could explain why it feels this way. I’m sticking around to learn more about the Big Pm, why it happened and if Val being blind at a young age could play a part in this tale. The concept is solid but I think this first issue didn’t give us enough to be drawn into this new world. But with that being said I’m hoping for more to come by issue 3 which is slated for the month of May.
Post-Apocalyptic stories are some of my favorites to read. It gives us a world that slightly resembles the one we are from but creates a new life to adapt to with new challenges to overcome. Nocterra can give us that story but only if we hit some marks that I felt were lacking in this issue. The antagonist seems menacing enough but to throw him in so soon only makes me question the other things more.
As a fan of Scott Snyder’s work, I will say he does have his style of creating long-form stories that payout at the end. With Tony S Daniel illustrating the series were promised some gorgeous art as well. So I’ll be sticking to the story for a while and see where he takes Val & Emory. And see if Nocterra is the next big hit I expect it to be. As debut issues go I have to give it a 3 out of 5.
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