Last Sons of America #1 Review

Last Sons of America #1 from BOOM! Studios -

   Our enemies knew that they couldn't match our current might, so they crushed our future. A few years from know, America will come under attack. A chemical weapon called Agent Pink will put  America's future on the endangered list by causing Auto-Infertility Syndrome, or "Mother's Plague," a disease that will bring America's birth rate to a crashing halt. Based in Nicaragua, Jackie and Julian are brothers, but they are also brokers for an agency that deals in the only currency left that matters to the powerful, but declining United States: children. The agency buys children from all over the world to help replenish the U.S.'s population, and to complete the families of anguished, but wealthy, Americans. Jackie and Julian are behind on their quotas, struggling for new prospects, all the while trying to maintain good relations with their "host," Don Carlo, the head of a crime organization in this impoverished country, one who knows all, runs all, and gets a piece of every pie. When Jackie happens upon an orphan looking for a better life, it seems like a Godsend...But what Jackie doesn't know about this girl just might get both him and his brother killed. 

    Last Sons of America has a VERY interesting and timely premise: What happens when a country growing increasingly xenophobic needs new blood...New blood that it cannot supply for itself? The concept of what is American becomes fluid to facilitate the nation's survival. Phillip Kennedy Johnson makes this story gritty, slimy, and realistic - it seems like it could actually happen. The protagonists seem like everyday guys - desperate, flawed humans, trying to make a living in a dirty business while attempting to hold on to a modicum of dignity, decency and even patriotism. But these guys are navigating in dark waters; you can't play in the mud and not get dirty. I bet they'll find out the hard way. Matthew Dow Smith's pencils are moody - he loves to play with the use of light and shadow. Smith's work is competent; he gets the job done, and tells the story pretty well. There were a few grammatical errors during the use of Spanish; however, overall, this is a compelling narrative that just might prove to be worth the while. The first issue definitely was.

RATING: 8 out of 10. 

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