“Arcadia” #1 is dense. Not overwhelmingly dense or dense in an intellectually superior kind of way, but there is a lot of world building happening in this first issue. I was immediately impressed by the scope and on my second pass enamored by how quickly skillfully we are introduced to such an unfamiliar Earth and an even more unfamiliar Arcadia. There is an impressive amount of grace and finesse as well as the promise of monumental things in this politically driven, post-apocalyptic scifi. If you aren’t sold on the premise, I encourage you to expose yourself anyway. The narration in this book is poetry, and the world we are introduced to is both thrilling and terrifying. “Arcadia” #1 is the best kind of something else.
WRITTEN BY: Alex Paknadel
ART BY: Eric Scott Pfeiffer
PUBLISHER: BOOM!
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: May 6, 2015
By way of Summary: A virus in the near future wipes out 99% of the world’s population. The survivors resurrect four billion souls in a utopian simulation called “Arcadia” in the hopes that a cure would be discovered. The real world, or “The Meat” is now wasteland where global politics seem to play out on an incredibly small scale. Our protagonist advises the President on her first trip inside “Arcadia” to address the extreme uptick in resources that the simulation has been using lately. We discover what life would be like without physical limitations or consequences and things are not at all what they seem.
Comparisons to “The Matrix” are unavoidable, but this is not a man vs. machine story or even a “what hath technology wrought” story, not yet anyway. This is a horror story, really. A depiction of something far worse than global extinction. “Arcadia” is an exploration into how far mankind might get to save itself, and its something you’ve really got to see for yourself.
Within Arcadia, this first issue starts to tread into psychological horror. Arcadia is hell that looks like heaven. It is the bindings of ultimate freedom. And it is a world where anything is possible yet we still squabble and play politics and resent each other. Arcadia is a kind of fun house mirror that I anticipate will only become more reflective as the series progresses.
Calling “Arcadia” existential would be the understatement of the century. Like the simulation itself, the book is an incredibly dark comment on humanity disguised as a thrilling sci-fi adventure. It is a path I encourage you to go down, but one you should not take lightly. I found “Arcadia” to be deeply disturbing, and I can’t wait to go back in for another taste.