Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
There are stories that are derivative and boring, while there are others that manage to be fun despite borrowing heavily from existing pop culture. ‘Zero Instance’ by Frank Barbiere falls into the latter category. The opening pages of the first issue are instantly action-packed and chaotic, with a pack of armed warriors ready to defeat a near-invincible villain who lives in a Barad-dûr-style tower, you know Sauron’s fortress from The Lord of the Rings. And this pack of heroes is led by a very He-Man kind of leader, just with more clothes.
If you go into Zero Instance Issue #1 blind, you’ll probably have a lot of fun, because it starts off as a crazy fantasy action story before turning into something that hints at a more dystopian tale to come. This is a spoiler-free review, so I’m only going to cover the basic plot in the next paragraph. But if you haven’t read the blurb for the comic and have absolutely no idea what the series is about, I’d say just go read it and skip the rest of this.
Plot overview of Zero Instance: Rhys Allen is a popular gaming streamer with his own crew of friends, and they love playing a game where the final boss is supposed to be unbeatable, powered by an AI code that allows it to evolve as it encounters more players.
Despite making enough money to pay the bills, his family, of course, wants him to get a regular job. However, Rhys and his crew manage to successfully take down the villain, and he comes up with a new plan to break records in the gaming world. But the game developers have different plans.
The artwork in the comic book is engaging and fun, while the story offers an interesting clash between Rhys’ fantasy gaming world and his real life. In the virtual realm, he is a sword-wielding warrior, but once unplugged, he is expected to keep up appearances at family events and is pushed to attend job interviews.
Rhys quickly establishes himself as a passionate, maybe even obsessive gamer who doesn’t want a regular office job and wants to do something more meaningful with his life. His father comically points out that playing and streaming games to impress a bunch of strangers isn’t exactly all that meaningful either. Rhys came across as a bit of a brat in this issue, a typical self-centered gamer, so it will be interesting if his character evolves in the coming issues.
AI is a big theme in the story, and Issue #1 of ‘Zero Instance’ closes with an interesting cliffhanger that promises to change the whole course of the tale in the coming chapters. What deceptively starts as an action-fantasy adventure soon morphs into a dystopian science-fiction thriller.
Overall, this was a solid opening chapter that gives readers a good sense of what the story is about and leaves you looking forward to the next issue.
Rating: 4 on 5. Zero Instance is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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