There’s every reason to believe that the human race wouldn’t survive an all-out nuclear war. As awful as the total destruction of the human race would undoubtedly be, science fiction has found a delightfully diverse array of different post-nuclear hells, which might just prove to be infinitely worse than simple genocide. Writer Geoff Johns continues to attempt to add his vision to the gallery of apocalyptic post-nuclear hellscapes with the second issue of Geiger. He and artist Gary Frank make for a fun, little adventure into adventure with the luminescent aid of colorist Brad Anderson. There isn’t really much interest in this apocalypse, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of engaging emotions.

The guy’s name is Tariq Geiger. He was suffering from serious cancer. His body responded to the cancer treatment by spiking a fever around 120 degrees. Shoot ahead to life after the bomb, and he glows green and seems vaguely immortal. Meanwhile, a woman attempts to escape the despotic kingdom of Las Vegas with the holy grail that was the nuclear football that might have brought about the current state of things. She’s looking to escape to some residue of the original U.S. with her two kids. 

Johns really felt like he might have been going somewhere with the world of Geiger until it became apparent that he wanted to do a nightmare warping of Camelot 3000. The post-apocalyptic Arthurian thing is just goofy. Thankfully, it rests a bit in the background of the main force of the series. The two kids introduced in this issue are compelling. The revelation about Geiger himself is fun. Johns may not have done much else of interest here, but he HAS made a really cool post-nuclear superhero. That much is a lot of fun.

Frank’s rendering of a squalid, crowded post-apocalyptic Las Vegas isn’t nearly as detailed as it should be. Still, the images of the title character in the Nevada desert at night look gorgeous. If they were frames just a bit differently, they wouldn’t look at all out of place on an ’80s heavy metal album cover. It’s really, really appealing stuff that is made all the more cool by Brad Anderson’s gorgeous colors. With a character like Geiger, the color kind of HAS to be its own character. The glowing green of the radiation in the hero’s body is kind of dazzling.

It kind of feels like Johns was trying to fuse too much into the world of the series. The fact that this is becoming apparent only two issues in suggests that he might have done well scale it back considerably. The title character is fun. The children he runs into at chapters end are appealingly human and emotionally engaging. Everything that happens in Vegas, this issue...really should have just stayed in Vegas. The title character is interesting enough. He doesn’t need the silly potential antagonist of...the king of Las Vegas. It’s just goofy. 

Grade: C-