The Threat: Reboot #1

By Mark Schmidt, Vince Chuter, Jose Fernandez, William Anderson

“We didn’t set out to change the world. We were just trying to survive it.”

Ain’t that the truth. Have you seen the price of gluten-free bread? Have you?! Just me? Okay, never mind then…

Creators/writers Mark Schmidt and Vince Chuter put a new spin on the apocalyptic type storyline. The Threat: Reboot #1 shows us how the government’s meddling in the body chemistry of soldiers can have adverse effects (did they learn nothing from Bruce Banner trying to be like Captain America?!). Turns out trying to augment your soldiers into super weapons can give them…super powers?

Issue #1 sets out to introduce us to a large cast of characters. We have our potential heroes getting their intros along with a lot said about the man responsible for this whole mess (a crafty businessman…those businessmen are always up to no good). Schmidt and Chuter progress the story forward in time by decades and decades as we see the effects of this augmentation taking its toll on its test subjects. Even with these large skips in time we are kept on a clear path with the story, and feel invested in our would-be-heroes even when it looks like they’re up to no good…

On the artwork side of this issue there’s Jose Fernandez, along with colorist William Anderson. The opening scene in this issue kicks off the story is a positive manner, taking place is a world years into the future (the year 2085…would take some sort of math genius to figure out how many years into the future that is). The scene shows kids running around and playing, capes tucked around their necks as they pretend to be heroes. A curious part of this scene is one of the children playing, who appears to be an alien, but as the story goes on and you learn about how the augmenting has changed the test subjects…is different life forms like this more common in the future? Is the world of Futurama closer than we thought?

Fernandez fills the skies in this scene with flying cars as Anderson adds a pink/purple haze. The world certainly looks peaceful, but what does it take to get to this serenity? Anderson goes on to color the rest of the scene in bright colors – which further embraces this idea of peace.

Issue #1 of The Threat: Reboot gives us a lot of characters to keep an eye on. This story offers a big world with fresh ideas filling it up. You’re pitted against this businessman trying to control everyone with his ideas, but is he really the bad guy? Is he truly trying to make the world a better place? Will the price of gluten-free bread ever go down?