4 out of 5

(I initially bought the first two issues as a hardcover album, so consider this review as essentially for the whole series.)

Dear Hollywood: Have you been having trouble, of late, scoring a blockbuster that’s not part of an existing franchise?  Here’s my suggestion: read World War X.  Adapt it.  Don’t change a god damned thing.

And here’s my suggestion to readers, be they Hollywood-producery types or wee mortals: read this series in one sitting.  Jerry Frissen’s breezy alien invasion tale moves at a ridiculous pace, and separating the issues by weeks gives too much emphasis to plot points that are best left to whizz past you like high-concept bullets.

While the core premise for WWX isn’t a new one – an invasion, essentially, from within, as excavated oddities one day reveal the other-worldly instruments of Earth’s destruction – Frissen employs some key quirks that make this a breathless, fun, and fresh read.  Firstly, he weaves an actual sense of history and complicity into events.  Not just that humans are digging these items up, but that they’re part of a project that’s been going on for quite some time – stretching back to the roots of NASA – and that has been, to some extent, made a public record.  There are secrets in WWX, but Jerry doesn’t necessarily try to pull the conspiracy angle; rather, it’s a believable government approach: here’s some of the truth, as we understand it.  A key misunderstanding – understood too late by a scientist on the project, Adeph – allows things to move forward because it makes these items genuinely seem to be positive discoveries.  Whoops.  Secondly, while a movie version of this would likely fall in to destruction porn, as the unleashed aliens begin to wreak havoc around the globe, there’s something terrifyingly effective about these sequences in the book, in how Jerry doesn’t draw it out.  The baddies get the wake up call and then it’s just to work, and there’s not even time to think about how to stop them.  Third: myth.  Yes, the core premise has been done before, but well paced flashbacks show similar events throughout history, as well as some key characters who seem to keep popping up along the way.  Frissen does drop the ball a couple of times, including juicy diversions that don’t end up going anywhere – including, unfortunately, a last minute decision that sort of humorously makes a prior sequence pointless – but overall, he keeps the focus laser tight, showing us just enough of the backstory to set the stakes high.  The world really is ending; we’re really out of ideas.

Peter Snejbjerg’s art initially feels a little stiff, but this is also in part because the story necessarily jumps around to set things up, and you don’t get to settle with a character or location for too long.  But once you’re used to that pace – and the first action sequence heats up – Pete’s Stenbeck-like work comes to life, wrangling massive battle sequences into impressive, followable panels while also giving our key characters plenty of personality.  Delphine Rieu’s warm colors help to give the book equally a sense of humanity and, when appropriate, a spacely, creepy, quietness.

Hollywood – I changed my mind.  This series is so much fun, I really don’t want to risk you fussing with it.  (But you should still totally read it and rip it off.)