Not much is likely to survive a full-blown nuclear war. That hasn't stopped science fiction from exploring the post-apocalyptic world countless times since the first nuclear bombs were dropped over half a century ago. The latest glance into life after the bomb comes in the form of Geiger's first issue: a comic book by writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank. Color comes to the page courtesy of Brad Anderson. The series opens with the legend of a man determined to survive the apocalypse with his family intact. It's a somewhat haunting vision of violence in the wasteland of Las Vegas and the surrounding area. The debut issue promises an interesting, little fusion between contemporary drama and fantasy in the strange world of Vegas. 

Joe Glow. The Man of Mass Destruction. The Walking Bomb. He is known by many names. Prior to the bomb, he was known as Tariq Geiger. When the warning came in that war had broken out, he marched his wife and kids to a fallout shelter. When his dog refused to jump into the shelter with the rest of them, he was shot by another man who wanted the shelter to himself. In protecting his family, the door had locked behind Geiger. No, he protects the fallout shelter until the radiation has died down enough to be safe to reunite with them.

Johns has a nice little fantasy on his hands. The legend of Geiger is compelling enough to carry a series. It's been years since Geiger's family was sealed away. There's really no telling what his family might be like. Now the king of Las Vegas wants to do away with Geiger in hopes of securing a name for himself. The hero is established as is the villain. There's a compelling mystery beyond the initial conflict. All the pieces seem to be in place. Johns has constructed a novel, little adventure, in the first issue of a new series. 

Gary Frank gives post-apocalyptic America the right kind of darkness. So much of Nevada already looks like a wasteland. Las Vegas is already so very, very weird. The two fuse together in a strangely nightmarish contemporary world complete with steely, animalistic drama that stalks the page. The brutality of life on the edge of oblivion is centered in and around human emotion that Frank brings to the page with a striking level of detail. Brad Anderson's colors lend illumination to the page that ranges from the ghostly glow of earthbound fires, the apparition of the moon in the sky, and the overwhelming light of a nuclear blast. Anderson lends the darkness some very compelling texture, as a very human emotional heat haunts the shadows. 

After-the-bomb sci-fi has been around forever. Johns has a hell of a lot of guts to try heading back into a world after a nuclear war, after all it's been through over the years. From Dr. Bloodmoney, Mad Max, to many others, the world after the bomb has been explored in a great deal of detail. Johns and Frank make a few steps in the right direction in a new series's first issue. 

Grade: B