There’s plenty of controversy about the subject of a physical wall along the country’s border. What message does it send to the world? Is it feasible? How would one make a literal wall impregnable? 

Image Comics’ highly anticipated Undiscovered Country #1 sidesteps those questions and thrusts the reader into a bizarre future where the USA has physically sealed off all of its borders. The book begins thirty years later, with a world suffering from a massive and terrifying plague, as the US invites a small team of visitors inside its walls to negotiate for a cure. Things quickly go awry, and it becomes clear that what’s happened within the silent country is far weirder than anyone expected.

This is the first collaboration between superstar writers Scott Snyder and Charles Soule, and it’s clear that they’ve done a great deal of work crafting the world of this strange future. The extrapolations Snyder and Soule make about potential global alliances and enmities that would arise if the world’s largest superpower withdrew from the international stage are simply fascinating. The bizarre sci-fi hellscape of the USA is even more intriguing, and Snyder and Soule provide just enough information about what’s happened inside the walls to tantalize the reader and make it worth reading a second issue. Unfortunately, they haven’t given the same attention to the characters, who seem mostly generic and interchangeable in this first issue. Hopefully, future issues will provide these ciphers some depth.

The art by Guiseppe Camuncoli and Daniele Orlandini is strong. A lot of the story is told in imaginative two-page spreads, which do a great job of conveying the global scope of the story. Colorist Matt Wilson adds depth and weight to the art, and the lettering by Crank! is superb as well.

Undiscovered Country #1 is a solid debut, with some interesting themes and some fantastic worldbuilding. It’s not a home run for Image, not the next Walking Dead or Saga, but it has potential. Recommended.

Grade: A-