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Hot off the heels of the long-awaited comic Doomsday Clock for DC, superstar creative team Geoff Johns and Gary Frank announced at WonderCon@Home that they deliver an all-new series for Image Comics.
Far from the traditional “capes and cowls” tale, Geiger follows a man trudging through a post-nuclear-war world with one goal in his mind: to protect his family. And while scavengers alone would be a tremendous hurdle, hellish monsters (human and otherwise) offer Geiger no respite. Ultimately, Geiger promises to be a very pertinent and intriguing series when it releases April 7th, but for now, we know a few things thanks to WonderCon@Home.
The Story?
In writer Geoff Johns’s words during WonderCon@Home, Geiger is
“a family man who loves nothing more than his family. During [a] nuclear attack, his family is [trapped] in a fallout shelter, he’s altered, and he’s left outside, [becoming] their protector.”
The writer later cited “mutant insects and casino gang bosses” as just a few of the obstacles Geiger will have to face if he means to protect his family in the nuclear wasteland of former Nevada.
When discussing influences for this “atomic western,” Johns and Frank mentioned movies such as Mad Max, The Warriors, True Grit, and Rooster Cogburn. Any fan of these movies is familiar with following a hardened hero as they traverse a perilous world to achieve their goals, but Johns and Frank warned their story would not be so cut and dry.
Geiger is noted to be two “forms” when seen pre-nuclear event and post-nuclear event: the father who protects his family, and the monster with some humanity underneath. Going so far as to cite the Thing and Hulk as additional influences, Johns mentioned at WonderCon@Home that a key force in the production of Geiger’s plight was to “do something that is more of a curse than a blessing.”
The Concept?
Fans of the “post-apocalypse” genre will most likely draw an immediate comparison to the hit video game Fallout: New Vegas. From the Nevada setting to the mutant threats, Geiger shares a lot of elements with Fallout. There’s even a short mini-comic in the book about a cartoon character, Junkyard Joe, that begs a slight conceptual resemblance to Vault Boy.
However, thanks to WonderCon@Home, we know Geiger is more intrinsically equipped to handle a nuclear wasteland than the main character of Fallout: New Vegas. Due to Geiger’s altered state, he has boron rods in his back which temper his own biological, radioactive energy build-up. When these rods are taken out, he builds up a nuclear charge, and, for now, fans can only imagine the devastation he can unleash.
Action, horror, and science fiction look to make Geiger an interesting story, but if one has already played Fallout: New Vegas, one may be asking: Why do I need to read Geiger? After all, a comic is magnitudes less interactive than a videogame, and if it’s all been done before, why do fans of the genre need to go through the motions of an old story? These questions are valid but overlook the critical component of the comic.
The Heart
The core of Fallout: New Vegas is the protagonist’s journey to decide the fate of the Las Vegas wastelands, but the core of Geiger is a father’s journey to decide the fate of his family. As bombastic as series in this “atomic western” genre can become, none seem to zero in on familial love as powerfully as Geiger promises it will.
Many pop culture staples were thrown around as inspirations by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank during their panel at WonderCon@Home. Still, from this reviewer’s perspective, an apt description of the upcoming comic would be Mad Max meets The Mandalorian. While neither story is completely analogous to the tale of Geiger, the sci-fi comic seems to reside at the intersection of “having to brutally survive” and “having people worth brutally surviving for.”
Thanks to the WonderCon@Home interview, it’s known such a melding of ideas lies at the heart of Geiger and makes the story primed for readers to become immersed in. Though the story may not be as interactive as a videogame, it is vastly more curated. Johns and Frank expertly choose each scene to lead the reader down the same road Geiger is walking and to feel how he feels.
The Verdict!
One of the purest statements about the character of Geiger came from artist Gary Frank during the WonderCon@Home panel: “The refusal to die – the refusal to succumb, even in the face of a nuclear bomb. This guy just refuses to be atomized.” This determination is downright inspiriting and, coupled with the fact that it comes directly from Geiger’s love for his family, becomes an instant selling point for the book.
Geiger looks to bring something totally fresh to the post-apocalyptic table, and anybody curious to see what that is should check out the book on April 7th. Similarly, anybody curious to discover the other hidden gems of WonderCon@Home 2021 should check out the rest of The Daily Fandom’s con coverage.