Time is having a crisis.
Mingling in the red-light district, you can find actual cavemen, medieval knights and cyborg soldiers on leave from World War IV. Victorian debutantes amble their way into cellphone stores, confused and bewildered (what is a data plan?). On their way to work, bleary-eyed commuters get trapped in time-loops, assaulted by alternate-reality versions of themselves, and try to avoid post-apocalyptic wastelands. And look, the 3:15 bus just took a wrong turn â into the neolithic era.
Assorted Crisis Events #1 is written by Deniz Camp, drawn by Eric Zawadzki, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
When starting a review, the first key question I ask myself is the extent to which I reveal how much I liked an issue. Questions like âHow much mystery do I retain? Can I even express my feelings concisely, or is 1,000+ words of nuance necessary?â so often get in the way of me professing my love for a comic. What can I say â Iâm an overthinker.
Now, when it comes to Assorted Crisis Events, there are no such doubts. Itâs a masterpiece. This first issue reminds me of an Isaac Asimov or J.G. Ballard short story; the concept alone is so evocative, so resonant, so genius that a plot and to a certain degree characters almost seem superfluous. For that reason, Iâm not going to discuss what happens in this issue so much as the thoughts and feelings that it whipped into a frenzy (the review will probably read like this, just FYI).
Very much like the patchwork of half-truths that comprise the verisimilitudinous reality of Camp and Zawadzkiâs fictional universe, the individual events of this issue are less significant than their combined effect. The issue is so rich with symbolism that, in another instance of form and content aligning, itâs almost overwhelming. But make no mistake, this issue should be cherished. Spend time luxuriating in and mining the depths of all this incredible detail, itâs worth every moment.
Assorted Crisis Events is the last 10 years of human history writ large. It so perfectly encapsulates the overwhelming procession of one crisis after another, the out-of-control feeding frenzy of media and content consumption, humanityâs accelerating march toward its own destruction; human existence since 2016 (or perhaps earlier). Most importantly, it crystalizes the damage of the events of the past decade on the human condition, the mind and soulâs fight-or-flight response to bearing witness to tragedy after tragedy, disaster after disaster. It goes a step further than this even and asks the question: âWho benefits from this collective exhaustion and resultant resistance? Who has created these conditions? How can humanity climb back out of the superficial sinkhole that weâre in and fight back?â Or, to put it as bluntly as Ashleyâs father: âThereâs always someone making money on the end of the world.â
Every major event in todayâs world feels âunprecedented,â feels like the end of the world. Campâs use of the concept of verisimilitude throughout the issue reflects the fact that for those of us who arenât directly living through it, all we have are snippets of footage and news articles and contradictory versions of events. All the human brain (and the spirit) has the capacity for when faced with these moments is to put the pieces together and go with what âseemsâ true, or perhaps even with what fits into our existing worldview. A combination of not knowing whatâs true and the constant bombardment of information that we experience on a daily basis has detached humanity from reality. Assorted Crisis Events pushes this concept to the nth degree, arriving at the absurd and terrifying existence of Ashley not knowing whether the world-ending crisis sheâs facing is even real as buildings and the human spirit are blown apart and erode around her.
More often than not sheâs on the set of a post-apocalyptic movie, the popularity of which further emphasizes a segment of humanityâs detachment from reality. The fact that the same trick is pulled on the reader multiple times is a testament to Zawadzkiâs sequential storytelling abilities. He deploys a range of different techniques, using creative layouts that express Ashleyâs state of mind in that moment (take, for example, the scene where she wilfully dives into oblivion only to be fooled by practical effects), and perfectly segue from previous scenes. On one occasion he goes widescreen comics, on another he gradually frames Ashleyâs gaze upward, and in the final scene of the issue he and Jordie Bellaire create almost a veil behind which the action occurs, using only red outlines on a washed out yellow background. Itâs awesome.
Despite all of these red herrings, Camp tells us via Ashleyâs narration how the world is ending. The fact that this is almost shoved into the background is in itself a really powerful allegory for our world. By fictionalizing the apocalypse, by dramatizing it through blockbuster movies and the circus of the 24-hour news cycle, those who run the media are able to obscure the reality that people are simply slipping away. As movies about superheroes pulling off impossible rescue missions dominate cultural consciousness, oppressed peoples are being lost to history, quietly becoming victims to genocide as the worldâs head is turned by the next piece of content. Sometimes those responsible for the former are complicit in the latter.
Onto the art and colors, which differ greatly from the hyperreal, textured, neon futures we see in sci-fi stories, even offset against gray, brutalist architecture like in Blade Runner. Here, the subdued, dark, flat colors used by Bellaire to depict this future (ostensibly our future) suits the tone of the book perfectly. Even simulacra are gray and washed out in this future, reflecting the paleness of a dying monoculture and the tragically monotonous reality of daily cataclysms. As Ashley says at one point: âIt doesnât take much to make this place look doomed.â
The first issue doesnât proffer solutions, it poses questions. It doesnât so much establish foundations as destroy the building that was there already and leave the foundations bare for Camp and Zawadzki to build back from. No first issue has gotten the synapses firing in my brain faster and more furiously than Assorted Crisis Events, and itâs been a while since Iâve been this excited about a new series. Future classic incoming.
Buy Assorted Crisis Events #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Jake Murray spends far too much time wondering if the New Mutants are OK. When he's not doing that, he can be found talking and writing about comics with anyone who will listen. Follow him @stealthisplanet.bsky.social.
