Wasteland: The Apocalyptic Edition Volume Four

Published by: Oni Press
Released on: Oct. 22, 2014
Writer: Antony Johnston
Artist: Justin Greenwood
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This massive 350+ page hardcover collection reprints issues of the post-apocalyptic comic series Wasteland, featuring issues 40 through 52, which were also collected in paperback volumes 8 “Lost In the Ozone” and 9 “A Thousand Lies”. Aside from those two story arcs, this volume features a couple of stand-alone issues (referred to as “interludes”), all the “Walking the Dust” text-only pages each issue features, a cover gallery for all the issues within (art by Christopher Mitten), and quick bios for the creators. What follows here is a brief summation (brief by comparison to how much the story really holds) of the two arcs housed within.

Traveling across the vast wasteland, Abi and Michael find a small little town outside a precity, calling itself “Far Enough”, as in “that's far enough from the precity”. Low on supplies, they take the risk and stroll into town and looking to make themselves known to avoid as much suspicion as possible. They meet Thomas, someone who can see the past by touching a person or object, and his daughter Diana, a spunky young woman that likes making supply runs in precities.

As it turns out, Thomas is another sibling to Abi and Michael, having the same “wake-up” moment when memories started to return to them and sharing the ability of a talent above that of the average person. His talent works well for him in learning about the world prior to The Big Wet and seems to be all he is into in doing with that power. He's more interested in teaching the people of Far Enough about the history of the world he's been compiling and learning about than he is searching for the legendary city of A-ree-yass-i, and he and his daughter are good where they are.

Everyone gets split up due to differences in opinions: Michael and Abi fight over the existence of A-ree-yass-i and what direction to go; Thomas and Diana fight over her seeing a young man that Thomas doesn't like her to be with. Traveling in different directions, Abi ends up at the birthplace of the Sunner religion, and the brothers Michael and Thomas end up wandering the wastelands eating desert rat. Once they meet up again, the three fight Sand-eaters and meet an actual half-human, half-sand-eater oracle who gives them a piece of info and they continue on their quest.

In the meantime, another tale is taking place, that of another sibling and this one rules the city of Newbegin. Marcus and his very sick sister are the focus of this portion of the story, and Marcus is in the midst of starting a war. His council members are plotting to kill him and find another leader before this war happens. Plotting and scheming don't amount to a whole lot once things really start to move along, and a visitor is amongst them.

That visitor is a very LARGE man and Marcus knows exactly who it is: his father. His father has come to punish him for some heinous things Marcus did in his rise to power and there is little that can be done to stop him. The man is three times the size of regular men, and he's butt-naked. No one wants to fight with a naked man. Not in this plane of existence, and not 100 years after the world crumbled in a fake existence. You just don't fight with naked men.

Marcus has been pulling a fast one over on his council members, but Daddy knows the truth. Why shouldn't he? He seems to be a powerful god (is he THE God?) and knows everything, exposing Marcus for what he is, and dealing with his sister at the same time. Things go sour for the leader, but the city is not lost. A new leader rises; one who will no longer allows slaves to be owned and wants to make Newbegin the start of a new form of government.

It might be an easy way to describe this comic as a post-civilization/western story, but that isn't what it is. Not to this reader anyway. It's a religious tale set in the post-Apocalyptic United States 100 years after “The Big Wet” that destroyed the world as we know it. Are Michael, Thomas, Abi, and Marcus angels that have fallen from grace? Is their father the creator of all things and here on Earth now to kick some ass? There is a good deal of action to keep the story moving along, but you really need to pay attention to what's being said and think about it for a bit. This is not a book that can be simply glossed over and understood at a base level, as there's a lot to it. This book is a thinking reader's book, so come to the table with that in mind because the book is deeper than just a shoot 'em up scavenger tale. The summation above is a mere smattering of information, hopefully enough to make the story sound interesting, but without info to ruin anything.

Antony Johnston's story has lots of levels to it, or layers if you will, and characters with 40 issues of story prior to the issues in the volume. To come into the story blind at this point isn't the easiest way to get yourself involved in this title, but his writing is such that you can keep up without ever having read any of this material before. His characters are believable, interesting, and ones the reader can really grow fond of, especially Michael. He grunts and groans his dialogue at times and has a deadpan way about him, and is always ready for killing things whether it's “time for stabbage” or “time for shootage.”

The art of Justin Greenwood is an eye-pleaser, utilizing thin lines and high detail. He fills the panels with excellent backgrounds that never overshadow the activity at hand and his Sand-Eaters are ugly and violent as can be. They aren't in this volume a whole lot, but when they show up its chaos. The gray tone work in the comics housed within this volume is excellent, enhancing the illustrations to an even higher level. That work conveys the look and feel of Johnston's story to right where it should be: bleak and dirty, but with a sense of hope.

You can certainly jump on here and follow things without prior experience with the story and characters, but this is a comic that deserves to be read from the beginning. The series is nearly over, at a reported 60 issues, which is a good thing. Stories like this one need to have an end in sight or it just goes on and on until it fizzles and Wasteland is far too good to allow it to fizzle. If you're too lazy to read the previous 39 issues prior to this volume, you should at least pick this one up and then finish the series from there. It's well worth your time.