First off, there was the sovereign nation made of trash, and then there was the bleak future without snow. Maybe a mid-February release about a world lacking snow — where at some point recently, those of us Stateside have been stuck inside due to inclement weather — may not have been the most well-planned out release, but “Great Pacific” team Joe Harris and Martín Morazzo team up again to present another taut and intriguing sci-fi thriller.
Written by Joe Harris
Illustrated by Martín Morazzo and Kelly FitzpatrickWriter JOE HARRIS (“The X-Files”) and artist MARTÍN MORAZZO (“Vertigo Quarterly”), creators of GREAT PACIFIC, reunite for a brand new ongoing science-fiction series and an OVERSIZED DEBUT ISSUE featuring thirty-two pages of story!
In the year 2045 it no longer snows. A catastrophic crash has left the climate ravaged, society splintered, and the newly-christened “Cooperative States of America” propped up and administered by the powerful Hazeltyne Corporation. Only one man wages an all-out weather war against the system, wielding the forces of nature themselves as weapons. He is the White Wizard. The ghost in the night. Genius. Terrorist. Outlaw. Hero?
You’ll recognize a lot of elements in “Snowfall” #1. There’s the mega-corporations trying to take over everything, the ecological disasters leaving humanity slightly crippled, the increasingly cynical and disinterested populace. They’re so prevalent in our fiction because they seem so close to being true in our reality. Joe Harris and Martín Morazzo present a new post-disaster world where efforts to control the climate have effectively eradicated snowfall and janked up the whole precipitation and atmosphere of the Earth. Attempts to make snow have mostly failed, though the work of a revolutionary called The White Wizard came closest. It’s been ten years since he was last seen, however, though so many people are still looking for him.
Harris intertwines three narratives, mostly efficiently. There’s a flashback to ten years previously, which opens the book and is actually a real triumph of balancing visuals and exposition. We have The Inspector investigating a sudden snowfall (we find out that she was at the scene of the opening flashback). Then we have the college kid, Anthony Farrow, who’s searching for the man, the legend who was The White Wizard. There’s a clear message beneath all this, but the book is cynical and angry at everyone from the mega-corporations trying to get more money to the ecoterrorists who’re doing more harm than good. You might get invested in one character only to find they’re capable of great monstrosities themselves.
Sometimes Harris gets so invested in the structure that he relies on slightly lazy devices to connect the scenes. He introduces the idea of The White Wizard by having the impending Inspector tell the Mayor of the New Mercy Resettlement that this White Wizard is responsible for the sudden snowfall. The mayor sez, “The White Wizard was a bedtime story apparition — a boogeyman!”
“I was told the same as you, Honorable,” the Inspector replies. “But he was quite real, I assure you.”
For as strong as they opened the book, this exchange sort of undermines The White Wizard’s mysteriousness. The reason a scene like this feels so glaringly obvious is because so much of the rest of the book is delivered deftly and confidently.
Because this is a book all about building tension, and you can feel Harris and Morazzo wrapping the plot tighter and tauter as they introduce more elements into the narrative. As an introduction, Harris and Morazzo provide us with plenty of interesting sections to grasp onto, but it won’t be until they get further along until we get to see what type of story this gets to be.
Morazzo knows how to present this information, though. He keeps the pages simple and grounded, with plenty of cool visuals though never at the expense of expressions. His page rhythms and layouts serve to build that tension, and you want to keep flipping through to see where the book is heading next. This being the future and a future run by corporations, there’s all sorts of technology at play, but Morazzo keeps it all in the background instead of having it blow up in our face. He does well to sell the authenticity of this world.
“Snowfall” #1 is a satisfying opening chapter, with plenty of questions raised to help take us through the story, but also with enough of a taste of the storytelling that we can guess what we’re in for. Harris jumps between characters and situations while Morazzo keeps Harris and the reader grounded through clear images and some top-notch pacing. Okay, sometimes the dialogue is hokey and not everything comes together, but you can feel like the story is growing and has grand plans for where it wants to end up.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – nice tension building and an intriguing start
