The first issue of “Higher Earth” didn’t earn the most favorable rating when it debuted, but a book with such a great concept deserves a second chance, right? Well, maybe not.
Written by Sam Humphries
Illustrated by Francesso Biagini, Manuel Bracchi, and Joe Eisma
Space is dead. Why conquer other planets when there’s a perfectly good Earth in the universe next door? Heidi, a girl born in garbage. Rex, a soldier gone rogue. The only thing between them and their destiny is an empire of a hundred different Earths, across a hundred alternate timelines. One majestic planet dominates them all: HIGHER EARTH. Created and written by Sam Humphries (OUR LOVE IS REAL, Marvel’s THE ULTIMATES, FANBOYS VS. ZOMBIES), HIGHER EARTH VOLUME 1 collects the first five issues of the sold out series, featuring arresting art by Francesco Biagini (ELRIC: THE BALANCE LOST). Also includes Higher Earth #5, the secret origin issue, drawn by MORNING GLORIES fan-favorite artist, Joe Eisma!
The story in this first volume is really pretty simple. A man has been traveling through alternate Earths trying to find a girl. He locates her in the first issue, then drags her along a tour of other Earths telling her it’s a quest of great import. This setup offers infinite story opportunities which could’ve run for a long time. Think Sliders or Quantum Leap Unfortunately, the book doesn’t deliver on its promise, and has a heap of other problems to boot.
From the very first page, the story has awkward pacing. The first chapter features numerous scenes which are so poorly fleshed out and so quickly passed, it’s hard to see why Humphries bothered to include them. Take the second page, which features a man being attacked by a cyborg bear, a girl climbing out of said bear, and then the girl taking off with the man’s backpack. Neither the bear nor the man are ever explained or seen again. Why waste valuable panels on this scene when other, presumably more important, plot points do not have proper room to develop?
Humphries also seems to expect you to be familiar with the premise before reading the book. Within the story, high-concept ideas are poorly expressed. There are numerous small examples, but the most glaring is the main premise. The basic plot – an empire of multiple Earths – is given only a brief, confusing explanation in the fourth chapter. You’ll get more understanding of how “Higher Earth” works by reading the solicitation than the first collection.
Don’t bother looking for character development between all the dimension hopping and fight scenes. The cast is very cookie-cutter. Aside from cliched tropes, neither of the main characters have personalities. They do and say whatever the plot needs them to do or say. Nothing more, nothing less. And that would be ok, because there are some great plot-driven stories out there, but “Higher Earth” doesn’t have much of a plot. Man finds girl. They run, and occasionally fight people who are chasing them. That’s 80% of volume one. The other 20% is a flashback which detailed the origin of the empire. Without going into great detail, said flashback wasn’t any better than the present day story.
On a positive note, the breaks between chapters were almost non-existent. There were no dialogue hiccups, time skips, or awkward cuts in the action. Kudos for that.
Biagini handled most of the art duties for this collection. He has some interesting ideas for panel designs, but unfortunately they don’t work for this book and sometimes work to make the story harder to follow. He mixes large and small panels, but is inconsistent with which the reading order. He also has a habit of using scenery in one panel as a border for other panels. This could be a brilliant idea given the right story, but here it makes multiple panels appear to be one big splash.
His pencils have an appealing style, but they’re not suited for an action book. In several instances, the dialogue makes it clear things are happening very quickly, but the action looks very static. Part of this is certainly due to the book’s overall pacing, because some scenes pass so quickly, Biagini just doesn’t have room to let the art breath. Entrances and exits of enemies are relegated to minor background shadows instead of their own panels, making it very easy to miss vital bits of the story on a first reading.
Overall, this series feels like it was rushed. It certainly would’ve benefited if some extra thought had gone into its development. Unsurprisingly, “Higher Earth” was canceled after only eight issues. With that in mind, it’s hard not to wonder why BOOM! didn’t wait a few more months and collect the whole series at once. Or if they’ll even collect the last three issues. Truly a sad ending for a book which could’ve been so much better.
Final Verdict: 3 – Move along. Nothing to buy or browse here.
