‘Saucer Country’, the new alien drama series from writer Paul Cornell, artist, Ryan Kelly, and Vertigo Comics is here! I haven’t read a new Vertigo comic in over a decade… not since ‘Preacher’ wrapped up its run back in 2000. But something about the idea behind ‘Saucer Country’ struck a chord with me, and boy am I glad it caught my attention!
‘Saucer Country’ is the story of Governor Arcadia Alvarado, a young Mexican-American woman who is at the prime of her career and has just announced her candidacy for President of the United States. But things take a strange turn when Arcadia wakes up groggy in her car by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Next to her in the passenger seat is her ex-husband, Michael, who has a bloody nose. Before Arcadia can figure out what is going on, her political friends pull her from the car and tell her that this can’t make the news since she’s planning on announcing her candidacy for President tomorrow.
As the issue rolls along and Arcadia is rushing through her preparations for her big announcement speech, she tries to put the pieces of fragmented memories together to figure out what happened in that car. When she sleeps, she has visions of tall thin beings and a strange bald man carrying a fetus. She thinks she has everything figured out and plans to bring Michael to justice for what he did but, during her big speech, she has another vision… and the pieces fall into place. She was abducted by aliens! Now it’s up to Arcadia to win the presidency so that she can get access to the government’s top secret UFO files and discover exactly what’s going on.
Writer Paul Cornell (‘Demon Knights’) has crafted an intriguing story that combines equal parts political drama and great characterization and then wraps it all up with a big alien conspiracy bow. The icing on the cake is the artwork from Ryan Kelly (‘Northlanders’). Kelly’s pencils are tight and realistic. This makes for a wonderful contrast when the stranger more ethereal aspects of the story are present.
I haven’t been this excited about alien conspiracy fiction since ‘X-Files’ and, if the series continues to reach the high bar set by the first issue, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see some TV network snag ‘Saucer Country’ for its sci-fi lineup.
Verdict: Buy
SAUCER COUNTRY #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art and Cover by RYAN KELLY
