The comic world has definitely learned to expect the unexpected from Geoff Johns and the Doomsday team. His new comic is no exception. The team once again comes up with more than a few surprises in their new series Geiger, a creator-owned comic published under the Image Comic label.
This cutting-edge style is also nothing new to Image as it published other works by this team. Here is a look into the enigma that is Geiger.
The Setting
In the fashion of many western comics, it is set in the desert but a different kind of desert. This kind is what would exist after a nuclear war. With the earth destroyed, new types of problems and situations are bound to emerge.
This comic brings the post-nuclear landscape into vivid color. The landscape is alight with oranges and reds, making the barren land look more foreboding and dark than the bright colors should allow. They somehow pull it off, giving the comic a distinctly desolate feel, a far cry from D.C. and this group’s other works.
The Main Character
Since it is only at its beginning, you only get to meet a few key characters. The main character, Geiger, is known to those in this realm under a few different monikers. These include Glow Man, The Meltdown Man, Joe Glow, and The One Who Walks Outside Without a Suit.
Although this seems the stuff to make a superhero, the creators assure us that it is not, at least not your typical superhero. The main character Tariq is an Arab-American man who lives out in the post-war wasteland.
At first, this might not seem unusual, it is years after the war after all, but in a world that is a radioactive nightmare, he lives without a suit. He has an unusual backstory and begins his journey by protecting his family from his neighbors, who want to rob them right before the war begins.
The majority of his story is retold in snippets of news stories and survivor tales. Shot in the leg, he sacrifices himself to save his family and gets caught in a nuclear blast. Although it is not yet known exactly how he gets his powers, he comes out of the war with nuclear powers.
The Survivors
The survivors cluster together in ragged groups and recount tales of the radioactive man that lives among them but doesn’t belong to any particular group. There are hints of different factions with different goals.
The King
Although there is not much in the comic about the king of Las Vegas yet, he seems to be an upcoming player. There is more to his reign than initially meets the eye. He hates Geiger. Although he controls the city and its survivors, another character introduced at the end of the second comic may control him.
As a new enterprise, Geiger is a different take on the traditional superhero. Even though it has just begun, the story hints at many twists and turns as it continues. You would expect nothing less from its creators.