Review- DOOMSDAY.1

DOOMSDAY.1 (IDW, 2013; Softcover)

Collects Doomsday.1 Nos. 1-4 (cover dates May-August, 2013)

Writer and Artist: John Byrne

Colorist: Leonard O'Grady

Yet another fascinating creator owned series from John Byrne. His tenure at IDW has seen him launch seemingly endless amounts of new titles, all of which have been part of Byrne's creative renaissance that much of the comic world seems to be ignoring. That is their loss, because this is some of Byrne's best stuff in decades.

Doomsday.1 is a riff on the end of the world/ post apocalyptic scenario. A solar flare is spotted by a scientist aboard the International Space Station. As the world at large begins to panic, the seven crew members make their way back to the surface of the Earth. The problem is that there isn't much left for them to return to aside from various factions and lawlessness. I don't want to go into to many specifics, as I want to leave you something to discover if/when you read this book.

I like how each issue jumps ahead, with issue 1 being Doomsday.1, issue 2 Doomsday plus 60, issue 3 Doomsday plus 126, and issue 4 being Doomsday plus 271, ending at Doomsday.2. I also enjoyed Issue 3's wink and nods to Planet Of The Apes and Willard. While Byrne seems content jumping from one series to the next, I hope that at some point he cycles back to this title so we can get a Doomsday.2. 

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- IDW have upped the quality of their trade paperbacks while other companies have started making theirs cheaper. They still use nice heavy paper, so on and so forth.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Five pages of crew character sketches.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Glossy coated stock with the sweet, sweet smell that can only come from Korean publishing houses that use virgin Amazon rainforest trees for paper. The icing on this delicious cake is the ink which I theorize is a mixture of broken asbestos tiles, lead paint chips, mercury from recalled thermometers, and of course the final magical ingredient: the blood, sweat, and tears of the children working the sweatshop printing presses.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. Good quality lamination on the cardstock cover. It should provide a lifetime of enjoyment on your bookshelf with reasonable handling.

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