Snowpiercer: Extinction Vol. 1, the review
Snowpiercer: Extinction Vol. 1 - All the knots come to a head The story of the first volume of Snowpiercer: Extinction will be immediately familiar to you if you have already seen the film by Bong Joon-ho or are following the adventures of the series Netflix. We observe, in fact, how nature is no longer able to follow the rapid and deleterious rhythms that man has decided to impose on planet Earth. After having exploited the latter to the improbable for any interest ranging from agriculture and mass breeding to satisfy unbridled consumerism, to pollution in all its forms to progress technologically and economically and from poaching to corruption for dark interests, only the failed experiments were missing to stop global warming that brought the Earth into the grip of the ice age and some religious interests.
The first volume of Snowpiercer Extinction is a prequel to the ecological disaster and focuses on the various characters that decide to live aboard a train, a giant in a continuous circular motion around the globe. Within the story we do immediately, the knowledge of the Wrath , which is a group of instead famous to carry out criminal acts, even heinous against individuals and companies that, according to them, they are stained to ecoreati, Zheng , a philanthropist and tycoon chinese who thinks that the Earth is going to reach the pinnacle of physical endurance, and that only some men can be saved from the imminent catastrophe, of the Apocalypster which are a group of terrorists who want to get to the extinction of humanity, and of various persons, among which Valentina, Dominic and Jerry that, being part of different groups with different interests, but with a single objective end, seek to start negotiations on what to do and come to the knowledge of the train designed by Zheng.
The latter is composed of 1001 carriages containing DNA samples and genetic profiles of the plants and animals of the world, archives of music, literature, historical documents, and the inventions of mankind, sections, farms, and even a luxurious swimming pool as if it were a young Leonardo Da Vinci. Everything comes to crumble when, after the two terrorist forces attempt to join, the leader of the Wrath Jerry is assassinated for the greater good. At this point is run a bloody sacrifice by killing Valentina, who works secretly for mr. Zheng. At this point, starts the first phase of the destruction of the world: it caused a collapse in the nuclear world, and while Snowpiercer is leaving, are released of the balloons in the weather ready to freeze every thing.
This is then the beginning of the first volume of Snowpiercer Extinction, as well as the official prequel to Snowpiercer divided in Italy in three volumes from the Editorial Cosmos. The story is important to better understand how and when everything started and above all why and how the survivors of the ecological disaster are found inside the Snowpiercer, the gigantic train that takes a round that is perpetual around the Earth. Within which, also, we begin to see the first social problems due to a constant class struggle that is also present in the numerous wagons of the train. In this prequel, therefore, is narrated and described in detail what so far had not been narrated in the original work. In the classic masterpiece of post-apocalyptic created by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette and there is no mention, if not in the way just sketched, of the reasons why the Earth turned into a wasteland dotted only with ice. In this way, the player could simply not imagine what could have happened, leaving the aura of mystery that has made it famous is the graphic novel that the film work. In Extinction, instead, the authors decide to tell us in detail every aspect that preceded the disaster, still leaving open some of the streets narrative that surely will be closed in the next few volumes of the miniseries.
The art style in contrast to the narrative, then, We are before a work that responds to the many questions, but that somehow breaks the aura of mystery that hovered around the name of Snowpiercer . Certainly, this choice will make happy all fans of the franchise that finally, after several years and countless doubts, they are able to have a situation clear enough and clear, made of plots, the plots, the political, social and economic, and crazy terrorists for the pursuit of a noble purpose, they decide to start untold the actions of criminals.
To do this, the authors use two choices, the narrative opposite of one another : introduce the characters well characterized psychologically, but at the same time dwell on the aspect of social, economic and political events. This mixture is not always working because the player is thrown into various messy situations that often take place in different time frames are totally different. Now we are witnessing an event in Sub-saharan Africa, after to London, and then in the Amazon Forest and finally on the Snowpiercer. At the same time inserting plugs of a Mexico of the FIFTEENTH century or of a debate in the auditorium of Zheng. In short, every thing is useful to understand the social and political of what's going to happen, but this also takes away space for the real stars of the volume which, being very diverse, are up at the end just outlined in the context.
with regard To the artistic aspect, we cannot fail to note the presence of a new name and a historical name of the miniseries. The first is Matz, who worked on the texts, while to the drawings we find the famous Jean-Marc Rochette. The texts, in the Italian edition, have been translated by the skillful Luca Ferretti which has managed to keep the emphasis and the harshness of the original dialogues, but it is right to dwell on the iconic Rochette that keeps it alive and strong its hallmark thanks also to the collaboration with the colorist José Villarrubia . Thanks especially to the latter, the stroke, dirty, marked and detailed drawings shall immediately take life with bright colors that manage to do very well what the narrative often does not outline the places, the characters and especially the time line and the context.
Thanks to the clever use of the dichotomy between warm colors and cold colors, and the technique of chiaroscuro , we come to understand exactly where we are, when and why. Moreover, precisely this contrast allows us to distinguish markedly the situations which are most sweet and quiet, from the most concise and important. In particular, there are two tables where this is most obvious: in one scene, we see a shaman mexican while he performs a sacrifice to the gods accused of having abandoned, in the one that happens after we can see a documentary disseminated precisely by Zheng. The colors of the first event are colorful and psychedelic, to strengthen the concept of the astral of the scene, in the second case, the colors are yellowish and were to give a professional touch retro.
The editorial point of view Finally, a small nod to the editorial component. At the end of the story we can find some interesting extras, such as the afterword for the 2014 Transperceneige by Jean-Pierre Dionnet, the cover of the French magazine “A Suivre” number 58, November 1982, an editorial of Jean-Paul Mougin in issue 57 of the magazine A Suivre, and the cover of the complete edition deluxe Snowpiercer published by Cosmos Grapich Novel.
Conclusions Snowpiercer: Extinction Vol. 1 is a brief starting point for what is the official prequel to the famous franchise post-apocalyptic. The fact that answers to many questions, it takes away the aura of mystery that enhanced the original story, and the confusing narrative may turn up their nose to the purists of the linearity, but the re-election of Jean-Marc Rochette to the drawings, and José Villarrubia to color alone is worth the cost of the volume. The player loses literally within a world so evil and corrupt, as detailed and well colored. There only remains to wait for the other two volumes, hoping that at least in those we can discover something more about the protagonists of the story, and not only on the setting.
