We’re now at the halfway point of Year Zero’s zombie apocalypse and while this is narrative a fine place for newcomers to jump in, the book has been so well done that there’s no reason to not catch up on the previous two issues. Playing out similar to the Max Brooks modern classic, World War Z Year Zero follows five different stories of a world ravaged by an infectious zombie disease. If you haven’t been keeping up with Year Zero you might miss a few of the more nuanced character development bits, but there is still a lot of fun to be had here.
The global narrative takes us to several interesting locales. A polar research station is the supposed origin point of the virus, and while this is the slowest moving of the five stories it is potentially building towards the most important finish. Sara Lemons is a researcher who has discovered an ancient man perfectly preserved in ice. The slow-build towards doom is predictable yet effective. In Mexico City we follow Daniel Martinez, a young street urchin now running supplies for the cartel that killed his family. In Tokyo assassin Saga Watanabe is on a journey of revenge from one side of the city to the other. Thanks to Tokyo’s fully automated infrastructure, Watanabe can make his way around while skillfully slaying zombies.
Thanks to the zombie apocalypse, five newly liberated women in Afghanistan are on a mission, not of bloodshed, but for knowledge. The women are using the opportunity to find books to educate themselves in a way they couldn’t before. They have no desire for combat, instead subduing zombies only to protect themselves. The final narrative, and perhaps the most unique, has thus far taken place in a single location: a bunker belonging to doomsday prepper B.J. Hool. B.J. is not your typical prepper, he had a feeling this zombie apocalypse would happen one day, and had a bunker fully stocked with comic books, Dr. Who DVds, and even his own decked out Humvee, affectionately named “Zombie Killer”.
The first two issues of Year Zero were mostly set-up. Getting these characters through the earliest days of the infection into the more interesting positions that they are in now. With two issues to go, Year Zero #3 appears to throw some curveballs at a few of it’s characters, setting them up for dramatic and exciting conclusions in the issues to come. While it seems unlikely at this point, it would be interesting if two or more of these characters found their way to each other before what is sure to be several thrilling conclusions.
-Neil Hazel
