4 out of 5

What a fantastic example of self-contained world building sci-fi.

With a few short sentences – reminiscent of Grant Morrison’s clipped approach to all-star superman’s opening – writer Jakob Free and artist Michael Lee Macdonald present their setting of a world in which micro-technology allows us to do the innerspace thing and, in this case, fend off an alien virus in a human host.

Flip the script, and that “virus” is shown to be a full-on culture, now besieged by the human army, as led by Rickard.  Fascinating landscapes and creature battles are sketched out; Macdonald’s figures remind of Brandon Graham but, thank god, without all of the ADD details: his pages and panels are beautiful and focused, with some exciting action choreography.

Matters proceed: the army is losing; Rickard is injured.  Flash forward and she’s undergone recovery within the virus culture… her point of view on good guys and bad guys now changed, and the remainder of this very satisfying one shot pieces that out to an atypically happy but not cheap conclusion.

While either side of this story – the war, the peace – could have ideally used one or two more pages to both transition between the two and create a larger juxtaposition, this is nonetheless a great example of the form, and how to craft a full story with limited space.