Every great achievement in society begins with a crime. Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire attempt to achieve this and so much more in their newest comic; A.D. After Death. The comic focuses on Jonah Cooke and how he accidently prevented people from dying. People no longer really die but rather go through cycles. Upon living for many cycles he has realized his mistake and is attempting to find new life and reverse what he has done. The first issue is 76 pages long and covers many topics that are thought provoking to our current way of life.
The Good:
The comic is a hell of a bang for its buck as it is 76 pages for the first issue. This allows the comic to have a slow start while still giving the reader time to become invested in it. Outside of structure, the basic plot is interesting. The main character Jonah has experienced some hardships as his mother and unborn baby brother die when he was 12 years old. As a result, he began to steal things. One of the things he stole has led to the current situation that humanity can never die, rather they go through cycles. Due to this circumstance the comic begins to explore an ideology debate through Jonah and his friend Inez. Inez wants Jonah to embrace this new advancement and come to where she will be working for her next cycle, so that they can enjoy each other. Jonah feels that it is his responsibility to listen for and attempt to discover new life as a means to reverse what he has caused. This is a conflict between the two of them as Inez is embracing the fact of not dying as a part of human evolution. While Jonah feels that he has to fix and restore humanity to what it once was. This raises questions about the medical and technological advancements we have made in our society as life expectancy has increased and what role we should play in these advancements. The other element that the comic touches upon is defining death. The comic has made it clear that these people do not die rather they go through cycles. Every few cycles their memories are slightly changed due to time and events that have occurred. The comic indirectly puts forth the idea that death does not have to be physical it can also be mental. The first issue begins to explore the concept of what is death when you can’t physically die.
The Bad:
This comic is confusing as the story is being told from different moments in the main character’s life. The comic starts with Jonah at 6 years old then jumps to him 12 years old, then to the present, and finally tells the majority of the story from another flashback when he is older. The reason why this is confusing is because in each of these areas of Jonah’s life major events are occurring that are all interconnected with one another, yet are also disconnected due to the lapse of time. Furthermore, the time period where the majority of the story is occurring is set in 825 A.D. which only adds to the confusion as there is no context to this time period, thus a reader cannot place how long humanity has been living in this fashion. With only certain elements of the comic being revealed to the readers, we still don’t know what caused humanity not to die. Having various elements of the story being told does not help to ease an already confusing story. This is disappointing as both Snyder and Lemire are excellent comic creators and have produced excellent stories. This comic should have been less confusing and cleaner. The comic also was a weird issue as it was extremely wordy, as there were paragraphs that covered Jonah’s backstory rather then showing it. This in many ways defeats the purpose of a comic, which is to combine the use of words and pictures, not just one or the other. One-third of the comic was just words and it significantly took away from the issue.
The Verdict:
Overall when I heard that Snyder and Lemire were teaming up to do a comic book together I was excited to see what they would come up with. After reading A.D. After Death, I am fairly disappointed in what was portrayed in book one. I disliked how confusing the story was structured and the wordiness of the comic. Despite the comic being overall disappointing it is thought provoking about modern medicine, technology, and the advancements that we are making in those fields. As a result, the comic is an average read, as it did not live up to the hype that it had received.
You can pick up some of Scott Snyder’s work here.
