Originally serialized as a webcomic, and now being published by Oni Press, “The Bunker” makes its print debut with this double-sized first issue. So far as first chapters go, this one is gutting, starting off an apocalyptic story with a lot of scope and layers to it.
Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Illustrated by Joe InfurnariWhen a group of friends discover an abandoned Bunker in the woods of Central California, they find a terrifying destiny beyond words. They must choose their fates or face the consequences.
From the critically acclaimed team of Joshua Hale Fialkov (ULTIMATES, I, VAMPIRE, ECHOES, TUMOR) and Joe Infurnari (MUSH, MARATHON, TIMEF*CKER).
Digging up a time capsule from the future is one thing. When that time capsule is a bunker full of letters from yourself predicting humanity’s doom, well… that’s another thing.
The story revolves around a group of friends whose destinies seem to be linked together in causing a world disaster. But, like any group of friends, they have secrets from one another – hell, even from themselves – and the letters in the bunker address these, too. Following the advice that their future selves left them is going to mean being crueler to each other than they could have imagined, and embracing a future none of them expected.
Groups of friends are hard to portray in comics; getting the dynamic down is difficult, and then there’s the matter of keeping everybody’s individual personalities distinct and memorable. But Fialkov succeeds on both counts here; the group hasn’t got the coziest of dynamics to begin with, and the sniping and petty arguments going on ring awfully true. At the same time, we get a solid grasp on everybody’s personalities, mostly by watching them react to the bunker and all the horrors it holds.
While the characters feel a touch archetypical at the start, interpersonal matters get so messy by the end of the issue that the expected stereotypes are hardly applicable. These are complex people with complex reactions to what is happening to them, and the fact that it’s their own advice from the future that they’re reacting to makes their actions seem all the more self-destructive.
Joe Infurnari’s art always seems on the verge of dissolving scribbles and white space – and that’s meant in the best possible way. The loose draftsmanship consistently delivers the goods, laying out expressive and believable characters that have just enough ambiguity to their expressions to make you wonder about the undercurrents of story we don’t get have access to. At the same time, the softer overall look – pastel colours layered over sketchy lines – lends it all an unearthly cast, adding that extra bit of strangeness to the overall mood.
The scenes taking place in the future are interesting for similar reasons; what we see of the architecture and technology isn’t far-out enough to be incredible, but definitely possesses the alien quality of another era. The desolation and ruins we encounter, on the other hand, have an awful majesty to them, bringing home the sheer scale of the disaster to come.
It’s hard to know what the cliffhanger ending is all about, but the way the emotional weight of this story comes through over the course of the issue keeps this turn from feeling gimmicky. Between the dextrous writing and the subtle art, we already have plenty of reasons to care about this story, and if things are going to go even further down the rabbit hole, we’ve got a foundation that’s solid enough to start subverting.
It’s not often you come across a comic this speculative – the kind of comic that’s easy to discuss and have arguments about – and the emotional dimension makes the intellectual one all the more compelling. Agonizing on a small and large scale, “The Bunker” is, on all counts, a terrifying read.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
