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Undiscovered Country #13-18
Undiscovered Country, Vol. 3: Possibility
The smash hit series written by New York Times bestselling writers Scott Snyder (Dark Nights: Death Metal, Wytches) and Charles Soule (Star Wars, Curse Words) with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli (The Amazing Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Hellblazer), newcomer Leonardo Marcello Grassi and Eisner-award winning colorist Matt Wilson (The Wicked and the Divine, Paper Girls) continues!
Collects UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #13-18
Collects UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #13-18
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 2022
19 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Scott Snyder
1,788 books5,191 followersScott Snyder is the Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer on DC Comics Batman, Swamp Thing, and his original series for Vertigo, American Vampire. He is also the author of the short story collection, Voodoo Heart, published by the Dial Press in 2006. The paperback version was published in the summer of 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
April 7, 2022
Snyder and Soule really have a hard-on for their high concept world - story and characters largely fall by the wayside.
There are lots of flashbacks, but they add little. The characters are all alike, sound alike. I don't care about any of them.
The baddy feels like a stock Snyder villain.
The drive behind the book is easily forgotten, there is little urgency, just stupid games dictated by the concept.
I think the worst thing is how boring it all is.
There are lots of flashbacks, but they add little. The characters are all alike, sound alike. I don't care about any of them.
The baddy feels like a stock Snyder villain.
The drive behind the book is easily forgotten, there is little urgency, just stupid games dictated by the concept.
I think the worst thing is how boring it all is.
June 13, 2023
Man, this wasn’t good. I have never read a series that fell from grace as hard as this. Vol 1, I was really in to. Like 4.5 - 5 stars. Then vol 2 was ok, 3.5. But this vol has just gone off the rails. I can’t even take these concepts serious. I’m not buying it. In this Possibility zone, all the people are dead and it’s being run by……robots? Androids of famous American folklore people? Talking drum sets and even the devil. Huh? This was a sci-fi book about America closing themselves off from the world and inside, the different zones separating themselves from each other. Where does the devil come in to play? The more this story goes on, the more ridiculous it gets.
April 16, 2022
Is this comic even coming out in hard copy single issues? I was watching the shelves at my local comic book shop so I would know when to get the trade and never saw an issue on the shelf? I'm an early morning New Comic Book Day shopper so not being on the shelf can't be a good sign.
Before continuing I have to say this collection had a better flowing story - we might even have learned something useful about our intrepid band in backstory flashbacks. But while the comic seemed to be showing us something new and different in the end it was just a retread of the last two volumes with nothing really new presented. The writer just keeps trying to shock or horrify or be "different" but when you do that every few pages or chapters for three volumes it kind of loses the whole effect you are trying to bring about to the reader.
This comic seemed to have such great potential all those years ago. But now not so much.
Before continuing I have to say this collection had a better flowing story - we might even have learned something useful about our intrepid band in backstory flashbacks. But while the comic seemed to be showing us something new and different in the end it was just a retread of the last two volumes with nothing really new presented. The writer just keeps trying to shock or horrify or be "different" but when you do that every few pages or chapters for three volumes it kind of loses the whole effect you are trying to bring about to the reader.
This comic seemed to have such great potential all those years ago. But now not so much.
Read
July 14, 2022The odyssey continues, with our heroes reaching the third zone of the sealed, changed USA-as-was. This time, it's the embodiment of America's creativity – or to use a more instrumental term, its soft power. Things get off to a slightly rocky start as one of the party finds herself trapped by curdled superheroes, stuck going through the motions of the same old plots to the extent that they've become a problem; I suspect this would have felt less played-out if I hadn't read it right after an issue of Zdarsky's similarly bite-the-hand Public Domain, but even then it would have read as a bit of a halfhearted Marshal Law retread. More interesting are the relics of abandoned genres, like the gangsters so old-school they're still in black & white, now taken to the high seas of a flooded culture. But all of this is somewhere between distraction and inspiration, because if the group are to continue walking the spiral to the next zone, they need to create a great American work of art.
"What do you want is to do? Paint a picture? You want Cheng to write a poem?
"Roses are red, violets are blue, America's awful, and fuck you too."
Certainly a sentiment with which most of us can agree at the moment, but alas, not enough. And of course, a dramatisation of what Undiscovered Country is itself trying to do, taking the entirely understandable epidemic of Whither America? narratives and trying to find it a newer, stranger form to suit newer, stranger times. An endeavour in which it is becoming more convincing as it goes along, with the tech utopianism of the second volume more interesting than the reheated Mad Max tendencies of the first, and this journey into the noosphere more fruitful than either. The problem being, for all that I am generally very pro-comics as a vehicle for stories beyond the genres with which they're traditionally associated, a heretical part of me can't help wondering if this might not have worked better as a Great American Novel. It's not like I don't enjoy Camuncoli's art – I've liked him since I eventually got the hang of his stuff on Hellblazer (RIP), and this is a much better fit for his talents than all those inexplicable years on Spidey. And certainly prose would never have been able to make the sudden onslaught of a gigantic Paul Bunyan as visceral as it feels here. But set against that, comics have generally needed to break their own form, or at least go in bold directions, to represent composition in a way that captures any of its real electricity – about the closest I can remember to a successful depiction in mainstream comics was the All-Star Superman issue about Siegel and Shuster's creation of Superman, and even that needed two universes and thousands of years, instead of just a pirate ship and a few advanced animatronics. Not to mention, in prose there might not be the same obligation for each visit to a zone to culminate in a big old ruck. Still, there are plenty of worse artistic crimes than ambition beyond what a medium can quite sustain.
"What do you want is to do? Paint a picture? You want Cheng to write a poem?
"Roses are red, violets are blue, America's awful, and fuck you too."
Certainly a sentiment with which most of us can agree at the moment, but alas, not enough. And of course, a dramatisation of what Undiscovered Country is itself trying to do, taking the entirely understandable epidemic of Whither America? narratives and trying to find it a newer, stranger form to suit newer, stranger times. An endeavour in which it is becoming more convincing as it goes along, with the tech utopianism of the second volume more interesting than the reheated Mad Max tendencies of the first, and this journey into the noosphere more fruitful than either. The problem being, for all that I am generally very pro-comics as a vehicle for stories beyond the genres with which they're traditionally associated, a heretical part of me can't help wondering if this might not have worked better as a Great American Novel. It's not like I don't enjoy Camuncoli's art – I've liked him since I eventually got the hang of his stuff on Hellblazer (RIP), and this is a much better fit for his talents than all those inexplicable years on Spidey. And certainly prose would never have been able to make the sudden onslaught of a gigantic Paul Bunyan as visceral as it feels here. But set against that, comics have generally needed to break their own form, or at least go in bold directions, to represent composition in a way that captures any of its real electricity – about the closest I can remember to a successful depiction in mainstream comics was the All-Star Superman issue about Siegel and Shuster's creation of Superman, and even that needed two universes and thousands of years, instead of just a pirate ship and a few advanced animatronics. Not to mention, in prose there might not be the same obligation for each visit to a zone to culminate in a big old ruck. Still, there are plenty of worse artistic crimes than ambition beyond what a medium can quite sustain.
November 25, 2022
While probably not as tight and well-executed as the first two volumes, Undiscovered Country Volume Three, “Possibility”, is still decent enough for further exploration and smarter than it appears to be.
Dynamic writing duo Scott Snyder and Charles Soule’s futuristic series is a little “Mad Max” meets “Westworld” with a lot of intelligent political satire guaranteed to piss off any Far-Right Trumpers still left out there.
Snyder/Soule tackle the topic of the death of Creativity in the U.S.: How is it that a country that birthed blues music, jazz, Superman, and “Star Wars” hasn’t come up with an overwhelmingly ingenious idea in the past 20 years? And, sorry, Steve Jobs’s invention of the iPad doesn’t count. Is there a correlation between our creativity lag with other countries and our antedulivian xenophobic immigration laws? (https://hbr.org/2004/10/americas-loom...)
The dystopian future that Snyder/Soule envision is, according to them, a direct result of the inevitable endgame of Trumpian isolationism and the “Build the Wall” mentality. Keep out all those people from shithole countries and we lose our primary source for creativity, thus losing any economic growth and prosperity.
The Far Right doesn’t see it that way, which is why Undiscovered Country is probably more relevant and essential reading than we want to admit.
Dynamic writing duo Scott Snyder and Charles Soule’s futuristic series is a little “Mad Max” meets “Westworld” with a lot of intelligent political satire guaranteed to piss off any Far-Right Trumpers still left out there.
Snyder/Soule tackle the topic of the death of Creativity in the U.S.: How is it that a country that birthed blues music, jazz, Superman, and “Star Wars” hasn’t come up with an overwhelmingly ingenious idea in the past 20 years? And, sorry, Steve Jobs’s invention of the iPad doesn’t count. Is there a correlation between our creativity lag with other countries and our antedulivian xenophobic immigration laws? (https://hbr.org/2004/10/americas-loom...)
The dystopian future that Snyder/Soule envision is, according to them, a direct result of the inevitable endgame of Trumpian isolationism and the “Build the Wall” mentality. Keep out all those people from shithole countries and we lose our primary source for creativity, thus losing any economic growth and prosperity.
The Far Right doesn’t see it that way, which is why Undiscovered Country is probably more relevant and essential reading than we want to admit.
August 26, 2023
The intrepid band exploring future isolationist America find themselves in the Possibility Zone, where creativity rules. It’s sort of a tribute to American popular culture of the past, with musical references that go way back to the jazz and rhythm and blues era, superhero comics of the golden age, and American legendary icons like Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, etc. . . . oh, and pirate ships as the world is mainly run by robots (since the humans ran out of ideas and creativity) dying for a spark of something new. Also, most of the Zone is underwater so these little pockets of nostalgia exist on several islands.
With this third story arc, I find UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY getting off the rails a bit, playing around a bit too much, and substituting a light-hearted tone for the urgency and drama that kept the first two arcs engaging. In places I found myself becoming bored. If it stays in this vein in future installments, I’m jumping off this train.
To be fair, Snyder and Soule still advance the story and include some new reveals about the USA, the Destiny Man, and the Aurora artificial intelligence that oversees everything and seems to make sure the zones don’t stray from the minimal essentials. Several of the characters get more of a spotlight and there is some interesting back-story/history. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
With this third story arc, I find UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY getting off the rails a bit, playing around a bit too much, and substituting a light-hearted tone for the urgency and drama that kept the first two arcs engaging. In places I found myself becoming bored. If it stays in this vein in future installments, I’m jumping off this train.
To be fair, Snyder and Soule still advance the story and include some new reveals about the USA, the Destiny Man, and the Aurora artificial intelligence that oversees everything and seems to make sure the zones don’t stray from the minimal essentials. Several of the characters get more of a spotlight and there is some interesting back-story/history. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS.
February 11, 2022
I think Possibility is my favourite arc of this series so far, mostly because it's the first time I've been able to identify specifically with the theme. Possibility looks at the idea of creating something, something bigger than yourself, and how media affects the world around us. It's framed through the eyes of the USA, like the earlier arcs, but it's the one that's resonated with me the most even though I'm not American myself.
The interpretations of possibility, including some familiar faces on both the good and evil sides, made this arc feel like it was finally getting to say something wider than just the mission statement of the series, to deconstruct the USA into its component parts and analyse them. Whether that was purposeful or just me reading into it, who knows.
And on the more surface level, there are some new revelations about the nature of the US, the AI Aurora, and the Destiny Man that keep things moving on that front, as well as some more fun character developments, and a cliffhanger that sets up the next arc in such a way as to prove that even though the series has been formulaic thus far, it's going to turn all that on its head going forward.
Great stuff. I think Undiscovered Country might really be hitting its stride.
The interpretations of possibility, including some familiar faces on both the good and evil sides, made this arc feel like it was finally getting to say something wider than just the mission statement of the series, to deconstruct the USA into its component parts and analyse them. Whether that was purposeful or just me reading into it, who knows.
And on the more surface level, there are some new revelations about the nature of the US, the AI Aurora, and the Destiny Man that keep things moving on that front, as well as some more fun character developments, and a cliffhanger that sets up the next arc in such a way as to prove that even though the series has been formulaic thus far, it's going to turn all that on its head going forward.
Great stuff. I think Undiscovered Country might really be hitting its stride.
June 30, 2022
It's hard to fathom at this point that the first Undiscovered Country volume had such zing. My review of this third volume will probably echo my review of the second volume: both the plot and art are becoming paint-by-numbers outlines.
In Possibility, our heroes have reached the third sector of sealed-off America: the land of Possibility. It's peopled with robots designed to resemble American heroes, both mythic and comic. Why was it necessary to make a sector like this? Unclear! But our heroes need to get through it, so they battle the robots and their leader, the Devil at the Crossroads. We get a light dose of backstory for Ace, but this is otherwise a pretty straightforward "get to da choppah" volume. By the end, we're through the portal into the next land.
The art is uninspiring, but fine. The storytelling is fast-paced and fine. The bigger picture is still unclear. I dunno. Possibility was fine. I'll read another one, sure. But I miss the first volume's zing.
In Possibility, our heroes have reached the third sector of sealed-off America: the land of Possibility. It's peopled with robots designed to resemble American heroes, both mythic and comic. Why was it necessary to make a sector like this? Unclear! But our heroes need to get through it, so they battle the robots and their leader, the Devil at the Crossroads. We get a light dose of backstory for Ace, but this is otherwise a pretty straightforward "get to da choppah" volume. By the end, we're through the portal into the next land.
The art is uninspiring, but fine. The storytelling is fast-paced and fine. The bigger picture is still unclear. I dunno. Possibility was fine. I'll read another one, sure. But I miss the first volume's zing.
September 27, 2022
A decline from vol.2 oh well. I think maybe they bit off more than they could chew, trying to write out visiting 13 colonies....I volume per colony is just to much...I suspect they will start to rush.
I still find Undiscovered country exciting, but it is starting to wane. The possibility colony sounded cool but it got a little muddy and felt a bit rushed at the end as well. The characters remain vibrant and fun to watch, I just wanted what the game plan is from here on out.
I will check vol.4 but it will be make or break for me.
I still find Undiscovered country exciting, but it is starting to wane. The possibility colony sounded cool but it got a little muddy and felt a bit rushed at the end as well. The characters remain vibrant and fun to watch, I just wanted what the game plan is from here on out.
I will check vol.4 but it will be make or break for me.
July 5, 2022
Still like this, though the storytelling is starting to get very cyclical and repetitive. Each arc focuses on a new zone and it seems, at first, the zone is rife with possibility, until its darker underside becomes apparent. If each arc will focus on a different zone, there's lots of story left to tell, but does it even matter if it's essentially the same story, over and over again? This time, the gang is in the zone of Possibility, which is where stories, folklore, music, etc., all comes from. Unfortunately, some sort of war happened here and it seems that all that's left are robots in the form of a variety of American legends: George Washington, Paul Bunyan, Annie Oakley, etc. (the Blue Bull should be the Blue Ox, but, hey...), and they need the humans to jumpstart things by creating new stories. The artwork continues to be strong and I will keep reading this, because I like the idea, though I really do hope it gets better.
March 8, 2022
Gave it 3 stars cause I felt bad. This story is getting harder and harder to get through. And it's looking like there's gonna be 4 more volumes at least. I hate giving up a story so far into it but this is pretty much garbage. Volume 1 had an interesting premise. But as they travel through these zones the story feels less fleshed out. That's what it is. It's not fully realized. Mostly, it's just crap with the occasional interesting moment. Basically I'd just be reading cause I wanna know how it ends and when that happens I gotta learn to put it down. Hopefully I manage not to waste my money on book 4. I still have faith in Scott Snyder though even though I hate almost everything he writes in recent memory on account of the same flaws.
November 21, 2022
I've been continuing with this comic despite the batshit craziness of some (ok, a lot) of its worldbuilding. (Reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2.) I guess that means the overall story is compelling enough to continue? That is probably true, but this is the first volume where I feel the writers deliberately pulled back from examining their story's premise in a way that would have added a lot more meaning and heft.
Nearly forty years in the future, when a group of people are trying to find their way out of a future America that has cut itself off from the rest of the world (never mind the global community/economy/information exchange is such that this couldn't happen; this is only one of the handwaves you have to look past to go with this), said group has reached the third of thirteen balkanized American zones: Possibility. As described in the comic:
Once populated by all the creatives responsible for the stories and myths and music and styles and culture that made America what it was to the world. The dream.
Out of all the zones, Possibility was tasked with making new creations that would redefine this land so that when the doors re-opened, the American dream would be renewed.
To pass through this zone, our group has to create a brand-new American masterpiece: a story, painting, sculpture, artwork--something that grapples with the myth/dream of America. Although one character immediately throws out a poem that works perfectly well for me:
Roses are red, violets are blue,
America's awful, and fuck you too.
I mean, this sums up the country in a lot of ways, past and present. But, y'know, if they had used that we wouldn't have a story.
The person who ends up being tasked to do this is one of the characters of color: Ace Zenyatta. He considers how to tell the American story and comes up with this:
Yes, I've been thinking about the quintessential American story. Immigration, assimilation, race, class...all part of it. But one story has captivated Americans since the beginning. Three words.
Rags to riches.
So many American stories follow that model. Someone comes from nothing and ends up on top of the world.
And I thought, really? The two white writers are having the black guy say this? Without mentioning America's history of slavery, genocide and Jim Crow, and how that plays into restricting who can actually achieve this rags-to-riches fantasy?
This would have been a very rich vein to tap if the writers had had the balls to really grapple with it. (Also, bringing in a writer of color might have helped.) As it is, they come close in a couple of places, but they end up pulling their punches and ducking away. This pretty much spoiled the impact of this volume for me.
Look, I'm sure many people read this comic just for its overall batshittery. It is pretty over-the-top compared to others. But it's disappointing that they come up with a storyline that is supposed to explore the mythology and dream of America--and they don't actually do it.
Nearly forty years in the future, when a group of people are trying to find their way out of a future America that has cut itself off from the rest of the world (never mind the global community/economy/information exchange is such that this couldn't happen; this is only one of the handwaves you have to look past to go with this), said group has reached the third of thirteen balkanized American zones: Possibility. As described in the comic:
Once populated by all the creatives responsible for the stories and myths and music and styles and culture that made America what it was to the world. The dream.
Out of all the zones, Possibility was tasked with making new creations that would redefine this land so that when the doors re-opened, the American dream would be renewed.
To pass through this zone, our group has to create a brand-new American masterpiece: a story, painting, sculpture, artwork--something that grapples with the myth/dream of America. Although one character immediately throws out a poem that works perfectly well for me:
Roses are red, violets are blue,
America's awful, and fuck you too.
I mean, this sums up the country in a lot of ways, past and present. But, y'know, if they had used that we wouldn't have a story.
The person who ends up being tasked to do this is one of the characters of color: Ace Zenyatta. He considers how to tell the American story and comes up with this:
Yes, I've been thinking about the quintessential American story. Immigration, assimilation, race, class...all part of it. But one story has captivated Americans since the beginning. Three words.
Rags to riches.
So many American stories follow that model. Someone comes from nothing and ends up on top of the world.
And I thought, really? The two white writers are having the black guy say this? Without mentioning America's history of slavery, genocide and Jim Crow, and how that plays into restricting who can actually achieve this rags-to-riches fantasy?
This would have been a very rich vein to tap if the writers had had the balls to really grapple with it. (Also, bringing in a writer of color might have helped.) As it is, they come close in a couple of places, but they end up pulling their punches and ducking away. This pretty much spoiled the impact of this volume for me.
Look, I'm sure many people read this comic just for its overall batshittery. It is pretty over-the-top compared to others. But it's disappointing that they come up with a storyline that is supposed to explore the mythology and dream of America--and they don't actually do it.
February 18, 2023
If you liked the previous books, you'll probably like this one. I'm not sure if this story is continuing.
I would probably still read it to see where it ended up, but I'm not hooked on it. The artwork continues to impress.
I would probably still read it to see where it ended up, but I'm not hooked on it. The artwork continues to impress.
February 13, 2025
This book is carried by the unbelievable art of Giuseppe Camuncoli. His work elevates this story so much because the story is going off the rails. Snyder & Soule, two tremendous writers, are possibly too deep in the weeds. This trippy story is even more so this volume and its too much so. The story makes little sense and the original confusion that the readers and characters shared has worn off. I want to really like this but the book is heading in the wrong direction. Overall, amazingly creative art and head-scratching story don't add up to a hit.
June 10, 2023
El "high concept" que proponían los dos guionistas en el primer número (¿qué ha pasado con los Estados Unidos que llevan 30 años sin dar ninguna señal?) sigue aquí descubriéndonos el pasado y el futuro de un país misterioso. Pero demasiadas cosas pasan para 176 páginas. Tiene ideas muy buenas, y el arte me sigue gustando mucho.
August 28, 2022
The land of Possibility brings new information and new trials to our crew. Every volume of this series continues to surprise me and I was really intrigued by the American icons showcased in this volume.
March 17, 2022
Still a strong story, but the art is somehow rushed and unpolished compared with the previous volumes.
April 26, 2022
The Zone of Possibility. Where creativity is given complete freedom. Though it backfired a bit when the robots changed too much and the Crossroads Devil started causing trouble.
April 4, 2022
It's been months since I read the last volume, but I didn't find myself lost with this, mainly because the story focuses on the current region without spending too much time on the recent past. Some of the B characters get a lot of development time here (Val and Ace take center stage here), and Snyder balances a canvas that allows him to write about just about anything he wants (Superhero universes, folklore, veiled current events) and mixes it with a couple of rousing action sequences. The One Man Band is a sight to behold, and just about worth the read on its own. Maybe the focus on American Masterpieces just calls out to me more than the previous volume's theme did, but I really enjoyed this book. The art is well done, and all of the basically throwaway characters still get unique designs. I'm not sure how much it really moves the overarching plot forward, but it does shed a lot of insights into a variety of areas in a fulfilling way. Highly recommended, but just remember it is on the high-concept side of Snyder's current writings.
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February 20, 2022I’ll never stop being excited by the promise of these two writers I love discussing America, but neither of these past two volumes have grabbed me quite like the first.
May 1, 2022
This was a slog to get through and probably the last of the series I’ll read.
November 20, 2022
Awh fuck I was tricked into reading more Scott Snyder meta commentary superhero bullshit again I call fraud give me my time back.
December 7, 2023
The ideas behind Undiscovered Country are solid and really intriguing. Unfortunately, we're three volumes in and I don't care about any of the characters. I feel like Charles Soule has no real sense of dialogue or character development and just wants to tell a cool story. That's fine for short stories or single volume graphic novels but the longer a series gets, the more obvious it is that he doesn't have a grasp on all the pieces that go into making a story powerful.
In some respects, this volume is meta, as the characters are asked to create an American masterpiece in order to escape the zone they're currently traveling through.
Do they? Well, according to the story they must because they progress to volume four. But I just finished reading the story, and I can't tell you what that masterpiece was supposed to be. A song never heard before that actually turns out to be some song that the character's mother sang to him when he was young. That's, I guess, the new American masterpiece?
Soule's failure to make something believeably an American masterpiece so that they could escape the zone is sort of telling, as nothing he's written has ever stuck with me.
I'm going to read volume four because...I guess because I'm invested in finishing reading the series, even though I don't really care about any of the characters, and doubt that the next volume is going to change that.
I'm not sure how their process works, but it feels like Snyder has set down ideas with Soule, and Soule is handling the page to page writing. But I only say that because between the two of them, I find that Soule struggles with the page to page, while both of them are pretty good at coming up with intriguing concepts. So, to me, it feels like this is being executed by Soule when, for my tastes, I'd rather see the book scripted by Snyder.
Either way, the balance feels off.
In some respects, this volume is meta, as the characters are asked to create an American masterpiece in order to escape the zone they're currently traveling through.
Do they? Well, according to the story they must because they progress to volume four. But I just finished reading the story, and I can't tell you what that masterpiece was supposed to be. A song never heard before that actually turns out to be some song that the character's mother sang to him when he was young. That's, I guess, the new American masterpiece?
Soule's failure to make something believeably an American masterpiece so that they could escape the zone is sort of telling, as nothing he's written has ever stuck with me.
I'm going to read volume four because...I guess because I'm invested in finishing reading the series, even though I don't really care about any of the characters, and doubt that the next volume is going to change that.
I'm not sure how their process works, but it feels like Snyder has set down ideas with Soule, and Soule is handling the page to page writing. But I only say that because between the two of them, I find that Soule struggles with the page to page, while both of them are pretty good at coming up with intriguing concepts. So, to me, it feels like this is being executed by Soule when, for my tastes, I'd rather see the book scripted by Snyder.
Either way, the balance feels off.
June 23, 2024
Maybe it's the best volume yet. Possibility explores America's myths as they pertain to its self-identity. This book is not all it could be in the writing department, but I love the ambition of it. The volume solidified that what I feel is lacking is the ability of an American citizen (this would be true of any citizen) to access their country's identity as thoroughly as this comic is attempting. Behind all the attempts to be bold, and there are bold moments, you can see the stars in the eyes of the writers; they believe in the American ideal. How would this book feel from writers who did not? On the other hand, the art is conceptually brilliant; the one-man band alone is worth finding a copy of this volume and taking a look. Sadly, regular artist Giuseppe Camuncoli only does the layouts this time around. Leonardo Marcello Grossi provides the finishes. Grossi does very good work, but there are pages where Camuncoli is sorely missed. I hate that editors/publishers are unwilling to wait for a regular artist. Can we get past that, at least on prestige and creator-owned properties? I, for one, would rather wait a few months for the regular artist.
July 2, 2025
Enough is enough. I’ve toiled far too long with the “possibility” of finding a means to justify reading another volume of this ridiculous drivel.
The story has gone off the rails. The layouts are confusing and frustrating. The art is inconsistent and the script is caught between a rock and a hard place of being one part love letter to the U-S-of-A and the other a tongue-in-cheek critique of all that the Home of the Brave stands for.
Scott Snyder has led his readers so far down the rabbit hole that he no longer knows which way is up. This is arguably the worst thing he’s ever spun—which is saying a lot, especially as it pertains to his recent output.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Snyder is either striking out in the dirt or knocking it out of the park. Sadly, it’s the former this time around.
The story has gone off the rails. The layouts are confusing and frustrating. The art is inconsistent and the script is caught between a rock and a hard place of being one part love letter to the U-S-of-A and the other a tongue-in-cheek critique of all that the Home of the Brave stands for.
Scott Snyder has led his readers so far down the rabbit hole that he no longer knows which way is up. This is arguably the worst thing he’s ever spun—which is saying a lot, especially as it pertains to his recent output.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Snyder is either striking out in the dirt or knocking it out of the park. Sadly, it’s the former this time around.
November 19, 2022
Honestly, bit of a generous three star rating.
The overall idea is pretty good, America cutting itself off from the rest of the world, but the strangeness of what is going on inside is too 'on the nose' and requires a level of suspension of disbelief that I can't seem to muster (and I reckon I am pretty good at suspending disbelief). I guess we are supposed to be evaluating the U.S.'s influence on the rest of the world (in this volume, specifically culture). An ok idea but it juxtaposes jarringly with the seriousness of the situation, in particular the (largely boring) characters.
The art isn't anything special although the colours are delightfully bright and effective.
The overall idea is pretty good, America cutting itself off from the rest of the world, but the strangeness of what is going on inside is too 'on the nose' and requires a level of suspension of disbelief that I can't seem to muster (and I reckon I am pretty good at suspending disbelief). I guess we are supposed to be evaluating the U.S.'s influence on the rest of the world (in this volume, specifically culture). An ok idea but it juxtaposes jarringly with the seriousness of the situation, in particular the (largely boring) characters.
The art isn't anything special although the colours are delightfully bright and effective.
February 9, 2023
What can I say? I love this graphic novel series. And this volume, where our heroes get to zone 3, Possibility, is just so full of imagination and creativity, that it was a blast.
Maybe there's not a lot of character growing in this one, but I think all our main boys and girls are quite established come to this point, and they are pretty interesting characters at that. And all the lore, literature, music, and so forth homages were just so fun!
We'll see what zone 4, Disunity, has in store for us, some time in the future...
Maybe there's not a lot of character growing in this one, but I think all our main boys and girls are quite established come to this point, and they are pretty interesting characters at that. And all the lore, literature, music, and so forth homages were just so fun!
We'll see what zone 4, Disunity, has in store for us, some time in the future...
July 5, 2022
The group trying to save the world from the plague called Sky move through to the next zone in an America that cut itself off from the rest of the world. The next stop is the zone for creativity, where music, literature, folklore, and the like were to be created. Small problem: there's nobody there but the machines that built living stories and the like in the past, and they want someone to create new stories.
Not my favorite series, but I do tend to dig whatever direction its taking.
Not my favorite series, but I do tend to dig whatever direction its taking.
July 23, 2022
The strangest section of all undiscovered country thus far. I get the feeling that each book is like an episode of Star Trek -- some wary travelers experience an extremely strange and potentially unescapable situation -- but in the end they pull it all together with a trick and escape by the skin of their teeth. I'll still continue to read, there's just enough thoughtful dialogue to keep me interested.
August 21, 2022
I continue to admire the thematic ambition of Snyder and Soule's Undiscovered Country. They really want to explore different themes about America in a very grand way. Volume 3 has many of the same struggles, the theme it explore takes up so much air there isn't much room for a plausible coherent plot or character but maybe that isn't the point. This volume explores "possibility," so it's all about art, creativity, soft power and so on.
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