I recently had the privilege of reading the first Volume of Image Comic’s Marksmen. Written by David Baxter and Dave Elliot, Marksman takes place in a post apocalyptic setting focused on the city of New San Diego. New San Diego is one of the few cities to survive the economic collapse and subsequent destruction of society. The story starts with the Main Character, Drake, on some sort of scouting mission. He is eventually attacked and nearly killed by a group of the cannibals who roam the landscape. During the process of almost getting killed Drake meets a group of people from one of the other remaining cities, Lone Star. These people save Drakes life then seek sanctuary from Drake in New San Diego. While the citizens of Lone Star present themselves as having a helpful nature, it soon became apparent that there was a more nefarious purpose to their arrival. It later comes out that the leaders of Lone Star, The Duke and Deacon Glenn, are planning on mounting an assault on New San Diego in order to requisition their advanced technology. Lone Star is a city in Texas that is run on fossil fuels and faith. Their leaders plan to invade New San Diego as part of their plan to rule the remaining standing cities. The rest of the first volume watches the story unfold as New San Diego defends itself.

There are a lot of things about this comic that I really find interesting. One of the things that really caught my attention in the beginning of the story was that Baxter and Elliot used the recent socio-political-economic climate, such as the occupy movement, as a launching point for the back story. I fully believed the progression the writers took us through led to the world they had created, one full of cannibals and wars over resources. The story also touched on the seemingly endless war between faith and technology, ideas I have personally never had a problem reconciling but much of the world seems to. One thing about Marksman that kind of bothers me is the idea that the people of New San Diego had the time to develop such advanced technology in such a hostile environment. Granted it isn’t made clear how far into the future this story takes place, but the idea that citizens of such a place would have much time to do anything but defend and feed themselves seems like a stretch. Beyond that minor speculation about the way the characters spend their time, I had absolutely no reason to complain about this comic. In fact, if you haven’t read it yet you probably should. Its action packed, its set in a interesting setting and has some compelling characters. Go read it. Now. Get it from our digital store and enjoy!