Comic Book Review: Parallel Man: Invasion America Written by Jeffrey Morris & Fredrick Haugen, Art by Christopher Jones
During World War Two on an alternate Earth, the United States did not develop the atomic bomb. Instead, they developed the ability to travel to parallel timestreams, which they first used to win the war. Fair enough. But then they decided that to be safe, they needed to take over the Earth themselves. World War Three ensued, along with environmental catastrophe. So they used their travel technology to find other Americas and other Earths to bring into their sphere of influence, using the resources of those other worlds to prop up their own dying one. They became the Ascendancy.
Now the Ascendancy has set its eyes on Beta 76, an America very much like our own. Only a handful of “Futurians” stand in their way, including Agent Nick Morgan. Which is bad news for slacker and video game enthusiast Nicholas Morgan!
This oversized volume collects the seven-issue miniseries from Future Dude, detailing the Ascendancy’s first attempt to take over “our” Earth. Much of the background is explained to Nicholas as he becomes caught up in events when the man he thought was his grandfather is abducted. A lot of world-building went into this series, with costume and machine designs to show differences between the worlds.
One of the details is that there are Alpha (worlds with history similar to the Ascendancy’s or with useful technology that seem to get full citizenship), Beta (“lesser” Earths suitable for second-class citizenship and resource mining) and Gamma (dangerous or severely altered timelines only visited if they have vital resources such as the crystals needed for dimension travel) worlds.
In exchange for its advanced technology (much looted from other timelines), the Ascendancy’s social evolution seems to have stalled in the 1940s, with racism and sexism still overt things. This sets up a secondary conflict, as Major Mackenzie Cartwright, daughter of the President, has her own ideas of how to fix the Ascendancy, which don’t mesh with the Futurians’ plans at all.
Oh, and those Futurians are led by Dr. Carl Sagan, who is still alive there. President Obama also makes repeated appearances, as both responsible world leader and craven sellout depending on timeline.
The volume ends with the Ascendancy suffering a major defeat, but perhaps becoming more dangerous in the process.
The volume is filled out with concept art for both the comics and the animation & game that tie into the story.
The art is good and the writing is decent; if you like alternate timeline stories, this one is worth looking into. If it sells well, perhaps there will be a sequel!
