The Tomorrows #1 Review

“This is all getting a bit info-dumpy, don’t you think?”

So says one of the Tomorrows, a group of art terrorists early on in this first issue of The Tomorrows from Dark Horse Comics.

And they aren’t wrong.

This first issue, for all of its promising concept, suffers from characters who feel the need to explain in almost intricate detail exactly who they are and what they are doing.

I can see the benefit as a reader, as I immediately understand who these people are and why they are acting this way. But it’s also immensely irritating and actually only served to distance me from the story.

For example, our chief villain, Maxwell Hughes the Third, actually describes himself as follows: “I’m a thirty-three-year-old man with all the money in the world, a voracious drug habit and chronic masturbatory issues.” Because even in the wacky world of comics, that’s how someone talks?

The story, from writer Curt Pires (Pop), takes place in a horrific future, where art is outlawed and the authorities track our every movement through the likes of ‘Faceplace’ (see what they did there?). A young artist named Zoey is rescued from the frankly terrifying looking robot forces and taken off to hide-out with the rest of the Tomorrows.

While I wasn’t a fan of any of the dialogue in The Tomorrows, there was still plenty to like in this issue. The art from Jason Copland (Pop) is really well done, particularly the scenes with Hughes and his cronies. The colouring in these panels especially is just terrific.

There’s also the nice gag of the identity of the Tomorrows’ supercomputer. I won’t spoil it, but it’s very appropriate for a ragtag bunch of art terrorists. I also really liked the design of the Tomorrows themselves, which feels very appropriate. All counter-culture collars and haircuts your mother wouldn’t approve of. If there was such a thing as art terrorists, I’d imagine they’d all look like this.

The Tomorrows is a very earnest comic, with an important message behind it. The way that the Government and others can track our movements online is scary. And art has always represented protest and rebellion, so it should be an effective set up.

But it doesn’t quite work for me. It’s all a little too on the nose, too obvious, particularly those last couple of panels. For a story all about artistic expression and individuality, this all feels familiar, like you’ve seen it done before.