Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Mankind’s polluting and war-mongering ways have wiped out civilization and left those surviving in a desolate wasteland where might is right and life is cheap. “Orchid,” a new graphic novel by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, doesn’t cast off the conventions of its post-apocalyptic fantasy roots. However, a surprisingly well-realized and disturbing world with an emphasis on class warfare make for an interesting mutation of an increasingly-stale genre.
After a global flood wiped out most life on Earth, the few survivors began fighting over what little patches of land they could find. Entire generations were soon preyed upon by slave traders and the horrifyingly-mutated animals that fill the polluted swamps that now cover much of the planet. It’s a welcome change from the familiar barren desert setting of most post-apocalyptic tales, but it’s the small details that make it feel real like mutated leeches being harvested for the drug trade, grass headdresses worn by prostitutes in the slums and the mismatching of clothes and names from many different times and cultures that suggests that things like nations and fashion are long gone.
Read the full article at The Advocate.
