Under The Flesh 1+2

An unknown pathogen which only infects males is unleashed upon Earth.  Global military powers are wiped out.  Governments crumble.  Societies collapse.  Hope viciously fades…

It’s been two months since Desolation Day and Ruben survives in an abandoned college library with eight others, one of which is his jealous girlfriend Dinah.  Their lack of human contact brings turmoil with the appearance of the Hellions biker gang, spurning a chain of events which causes Dinah to ditch the group and Ruben to question the loyalty of love.

The world has been devastated by a male-centric virus that essentially turns them into zombies if exposed.  However, just because women are immune doesn’t mean they can survive getting eaten alive.  Now it’s a matter of survival for everyone and with Ruben’s special enhancements he knows he’s the one to do it.  Secure inside a college library, Ruben and eight others try to maintain some semblance of sanity, but when a biker gang shows up, things start to take a turn for the worse.

So, right off the bat in the first issue, I immediately thought of Y: The Last Man.  I mean, a virus hits and it only affects males, except this one, who wouldn’t have drawn that conclusion?  But then, as the story continues on we see that Ruben isn’t the lone male survivor and that’s when it starts to go into The Walking Dead territory.  I guess the point I’m getting at is that the majority of these two books just doesn’t feel very original.  The dialogue doesn’t help matters any either.  Most of it sounded forced and there were points where it seemed like some characters were just talking for the sake of talking, especially with Ruben’s inner monologue.  There wasn’t any real flow to the books, they just sort of clunked along until the end.  In my opinion, the only thing these two issues really had going for them was the artwork.  J. L. Giles did a great job with the character designs.  The backgrounds came out really nice and I like the washed out colors that he used throughout.  It’s a shame that the quality of story couldn’t have been the same as the quality of the art.

Under The Flesh issues 1 and 2 definitely need a lot of work story-wise. The forced dialogue made it difficult to read at times and it just slowed down the natural flow. Check them out for yourselves if you like, but you won’t find me continuing the series unless some changes are made. If anything, at least go check out the art. For more info on where to find these books, visit the Under The Flesh website.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.