- Deep Blue (4-issue series)
- Mythos Comics
- Created by Bragi Schut & Lewis Fenton
- Art by John ‘Roc’ Upchurch
Dobbs is trapped in a dim, inescapable cell beneath Mech City, far below its shining towers and turrets. The last human alive, he’s dragged out every two days by machines desperate to understand their origins — and the human soul.
Somehow, they’ve mistaken Dobbs — a simple janitor — for Bryan Joseph Childs, creator of the first self-aware machine, Bottomless Blue. He is either the unluckiest bastard alive… or a man harboring secrets even he doesn’t know.
In 1997, a custom-built supercomputer named Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match, drawing two games and winning three. In our time, it was a historical footnote. In this comic series from Mythos Comics, it was a turning point. With the creation and rise of the computer AI designated Mech 1, Sara Connor’s deepest and darkest nightmares came true.
Humanity is all but gone, and the only person left behind is Dobbs… a janitor who tried to hide in his boss’s office when the machines took over. Sadly, his boss was the head of the company that created Mech 1, and his choice resulted in an epically bad series of events. Mech 1 believes him to be Dr. Childs and looks to him for the final answer it believes humanity has to offer… What is the exact, physical location of the human soul?
Story creators Bragi Schut & Lewis Fenton dig a little deeper into the relationship between creator and created, just as Mech 1 digs (and slices, and cuts) into Dobbs looking for a soul. Over the course of four issues, writer Bragi scripts Dobbs’s journey from “last man standing” to the discovery that (it’s not really a spoiler… she’s on the cover of issue 1) there is another person, alive and also in the custody of the machines. The beauty of Deep Blue is that the story takes you where you expect it to… kinda… but there are sharp turns and loops aplenty along the way.
The art by John Upchurch is beautifully stylized, not too over-the-top but definitely stretching the boundaries of realism. The effect makes the action more dynamic and drives home the near-surrealism of the story. The colors are just a little muted, and Upchurch’s facial features are beautifully expressive, adding layers to the comic’s visual appeal. The overall effect is a balanced mix of some fantastic elements.
Deep Blue did not give me what I was expecting when I cracked it open (which was, in all honesty, some kind of underwater adventure/horror), but it gave me everything I needed. I’ve gone back to it for a second read and come up with more details I’d missed the first time around… which can be both a testament to how thorough the storytelling is and simultaneously an indictment of my own comprehension. Whatever, I’m not gonna bother you with my problems. I’m just going to recommend this comic series, available in single issues and a collected trade edition, to anyone looking for speculative fiction that walks the line between grim & hopeful.
Final Score: 11/13
