Advance Comic Book Review – Unthinkable #2

Unthinkable #1 was one of my Hot Picks for the 13th of May. I just read an advance copy of Unthinkable #2 and so thought I would follow-up on my recommendation by doing an advance review of this second issue.

If you didn’t follow my advice to pick the first issue up, shame on you! Not to worry though, allow me to bring you up to speed:

The story revolves around novelist, Alan Ripley, who, after his brother dies in the 9/11 attacks, is asked by a shadowy government agent to join a secret ‘think tank’. Alan is invited to join the think-tank because several of his novels involve terrorist attacks on the United States, and in the novel ‘Y2K’ he depicts a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center; a plot so ridiculous that it could only happen in fiction, that is until it actually happened. Due to this ability to conceive the inconceivable, the Government tasks Alan to think up ‘Unthinkable’ situations, before terrorists can, so that they can guard against them. The think-tank also consists of a hacker, a lawyer, a microbiologist (that’s me!), a theoretical physicist, an economist, and a preacher. Together they come up with many outrageous potential terror situations, until the government decides that the project is no longer a viable pursuit, and decides to shut it down.

Ten years later, the same nightmare situations that the think-tank invented have started to come to fruition. Including the destruction of the world’s largest oil refinery, bio-terrorism attacks using botulism toxin in the U.S., and the destruction of the U.S. capitol. At the end of the first issue Ripley approached FBI counter-terrorism agent Daniel Patrick Skelly for help, but the government completely denies the existence of the think-tank. Not discouraged, Ripley left to find his own answers…

As the second issue opens we see that chaos has erupted around the world. The Iranians are being blamed for the oil refinery bombing, and Hezbollah is indicated in the bio-terrorism and U.S. capitol attacks. The U.S. responds in force, and Hezbollah retaliates by attacking U.S. foreign interests, and Gulf War III is ignited. The draft is re-initiated, and the situation escalates into a major international incident.

Meanwhile, Ripley is still trying to prove the existence of the think-tank. He manages to track down every member of the shadowy group, and together they hope to prevent the rest of their nightmare situations from occurring. With no help from the government Ripley falls back on the resources of his family, who own and operate Wolfpack P.M.C the world’s largest private army (a nod to real-wold private U.S. army Black Water).

They theorize that the next attack will involve bio-engineering a type of oil-degrading bacteria that can survive in natural oil deposits, and therefore rendering the oil useless. Having stolen ordnance, and top secret data from Wolfpack they head out to raid a major oil rig, where they expect the attack will occur. I won’t tell you exactly what happens, because I don’t want to spoil it for you, but we do see the return of the mysterious government agent who organized the think-tank, and things do not turn out too well for our intrepid heroes.

When I first heard of Unthinkable I thought, “Oh no, not more 9/11 flag waving, Arabian terrorist bullshit!” Thankfully Mark Sable has not fallen into this overworked cliche. The plot of Unthinkable is far more interesting and complex than this. The story involves shadowy government departments, conspiracy theories, private army facilities, an ignorant and easily manipulated populace ready to believe the easiest answer in order to go to war. Unthinkable is a very Orwellian vision of a highly possible reality, with the dawning of a United States fighting against an invented enemy, in order to unite the population, whilst also removing their liberties.

Mark Sable has done an absolutely wonderful job on this book, and has clearly done incredibly in depth research in order to make to story air-tight. Writing a story like this that implicates the U.S. government in certain nefarious activities takes a lot of guts, but he is very careful never to make any false claims, and much of the story is based on real life events and theories. Unthinkable is a phenomenal achievement in intelligent, politically driven storytelling. This is quite definitely the book that is going to make Mark Sable’s career sky-rocket!

The Artwork for the comic by Julian Totino Tedesco is gorgeous. It is very dark and atmospheric, and Tedesco has a wonderful sense of composition. Tedesco is a relative newcomer, but I think we will definitely be seeing much more of his work in the near future. It would not surprise me at all if Marvel poached him to work on a title like Daredevil. His art would look perfect on the book.

Remember, Unthinkable #2 is release this Wednesday, June 10th, make sure you pick up a copy!

[Ed Note: Please excuse any typos etc, it is 3 a.m. on Sunday night and I cannot sleep, even though I have to be at work in five hours - I shall edit it tomorrow]