In Undiscovered Country, the United States closes for no reason while an epidemic ravages the world but, thirty years later, a message proposes to a group of scientists to come to this closed country. Will you be brave enough to follow these adventurers?
The United States opens up to the world
Like a blockbuster on Independence Day, the beginning of Undiscovered Country taps the reader to his seat. A helicopter carrying a team of six specialists emerges from the mist and crosses for the first time in thirty years the wall cutting off the United States from the rest of the world. However, the reception is quite surprising since a missile is launched at them. The USA has changed a lot and we sometimes think of Mad Max when nationalists attack the driver with rusty vehicles pulled by fantastic animals or mutants. The situation worsens when the crash reveals the underlying tensions between the team members. It must be said that the composition of the group is strange. A little-known epidemiologist left with her brother Daniel whose only feat of arms is to have been able to get as close as possible to the wall. A journalist just records everything with a drone. A Canadian historian, Dr. Kenyatta is an exalted specialist of the USA. Two negotiators, Chang Enlou and Janet Worthington, representing the two great powers continue to quarrel. All these intellectuals are escorted by the traumatized military pilot. The classic organization of Undiscovered Country allows you to discover everyone's flaws through flashbacks. Many have crazy theories about the brutal closure of the former great power: the historian thinks that time passes faster in the United States. On the contrary, Daniel, having received a message from his missing father, seeks only to find his parents. With these breathtaking double pages, Giuseppe Camuncoli ensures the show from these first pages. In addition to this Italian artist, the creative team is a Dream Team of comics with two successful writers: Charles Soule who has proven himself on Daredevil but especially Scott Snyder who has had a decisive role at DC comics for several years. Here they write an independent series a road trip about adventurers lost in an unknown country as the world is on the verge of collapse.
A pandemic ravages the world
Indeed, while the United States despises other countries by shutting down all communication, the world of Undiscovered Country is brought down by a virus, the azure. Episodes released before the pandemic seem surprisingly current. No scientist can find a cure and specialists predict the collapse of societies in a month. To limit the contagion, the state is reduced to a release of antiseptics by helicopter. In addition, a war of empires is looming between the Pan-Asian Prosperity Zone and the Euro-African Alliance. A light of hope appears in the message from the United States proving that they have a cure and Dr. Graves is recruited by the European army to join the adventurers.
A political fable
Through the road trip of this group, Undiscovered Country is also a very contemporary political series. Like Trump's wall, the U.S.A. close themselves to the world. The message from the United States is delivered by Dr. Elgim resembling Uncle Sam. Also named Sam, he leads the Silent Majority, a group of resistance fighters hiding in a cave. According to him, the United States regularly renews itself politically. Since their closure, the country has fractured into several warring states that spiral into the heart of the country. The whole first world is based on territorial conquest where social Darwinism and the myth of the frontier reign. But it gets even more twisted when Sam says they're also states of mind. Each area has its own flora and fauna bounded by a gate. The political quest for the group of strangers to discover the new America is also an inner quest when they pass through different doors. Each key is a symbolic object of the country's history. The writers know how to imagine striking scenes that the cartoonist beautifully depicts – men crawling on a wall – while having a precise sense of detail – giant shrimp become mounts. However, they let themselves be carried away by their imagination by multiplying the sometimes ridiculous parables. Published by Delcourt, this volume brings together the first six episodes of a series planned in five volumes. Undiscovered Country takes here all the ingredients of the disaster film. Global tensions are mixed with an internal division in this small group as each keeps mysteries refusing to reveal its limits. Written before the pandemic, dread works even better today. The grey areas are still numerous and pushes us to read more. Scott Snyder has struck a blow in Batman Death Metal that you can discover here. You can find on this link another political fable about the United States with We Stand On Guard telling the invasion of Canada by their neighbour.
