After Dark sees Hollywood star Wesley Snipes and director Antoine Fuqua jump into the world of comics. The two created the series and writer Peter Milligan has been tasked with writing the story. Have the Hollywood names landed another success, this time with comic books? 

Well this release, #0, acts as an introductory issue to the world of After Dark. It’s set on a world that could very well be our own and it takes place in Solar City where it never gets dark. There’s a good reason for that, in the world of After Dark people fear the dark. It’s set up in your rather typical post-apocalyptic fashion; the world is about to go completely to shit but there’s one thing left that could tip the balance. The thing that looks to be most interesting about After Dark is finding out how humanity got to this position. In the brief they ask the question, are the people worth saving and Milligan certainly does his best in this issue to set up Solar City as a place that isn’t exactly worthy of being saved. There are drugs, violence, oppression and corruption and as yet there’s no evidence of that spark of humanity that makes it worth saving. It was disappointing that, as a preview issue, it didn’t actually delve too much into the history of the world and how things got how they are or at least some more details on the world they live in.   

While the story was a little disappointing the artwork was largely brilliant. I love the opening of this issue where Lieutenant Brood is going on about Spring and how beautiful it is and Nenthrup mirrors Brood’s words of beauty with images of a dark ugliness that’s filled with death. It adds this little bit of instability to the story, like you can’t trust everything that’s being said or done thanks to the drugs that are available in this world.  

The cover of this issue was probably the stand out. It just drew me in instantly as the guy on the front cover looks really cool yet menacing. For some reason this cover, and the page following that, made me believe it would be fairly action packed but instead violence is used sparingly as people talk about it but those involved with the story aren’t directly committing it so there’s a lack of detail and time given to the violence. It’s used more as a way of showing that this is a rough place during a rough time where violence is everywhere.  

While most of Nenthrup’s art was brilliant, getting so much variety out of the dark colours he’s used, the faces of some of the characters didn’t look right. They looked like they were digitally drawn and coloured, with some sort of effect added to them, while the bodies and clothing were hand drawn and coloured. This is a minor complaint as the artwork on the whole is very good, often complimenting the story very well with its dark style portraying the dark, depressing apocalyptic mood of the comic and the issue finishes on a high note with two full page scenic shots, which are just breathtaking.    

As it’s an introductory issue its purpose is to introduce us to the world and the characters and for the most part it achieves that although a little more detail on the history would have been good. Solar City looks and feels like so many sci-fi metropolises we’ve seen before but even though it’s always light it seems like a dark place. Lieutenant Brood looks to be a rather intriguing character due to his drug use and I really want to know a bit about his history, what’s made him like he is. Nenthrup has created a true post-apocalyptic metropolis and once again his use of dark colours is brilliant and there are a few pages which really standout with some impressive pieces of art. Once again there’s also a preview for another comic, Hotwire: Deep Cut, which gives the issue some extra value and its cheaper than a usual Radical Comic.