Welcome to the world of Verge, a detective in a dystopian future. Or is he a barbarian in a magical fantasy world? And who killed the dead cultists? Find out more in Subgenre #1 from Dark Horse Comics!

SUBGENRE #1

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Wilfredo Torres
Colorist: Bill Crabtree
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $7.99
Release Date: October 18, 2023

Previously in Subgenre: Verge, a detective in a dystopian cyberpunk future, is brought in to solve an unusual triple homicide. Or is he an adventurer in a magical, barbaric fantasy world? Welcome to Subgenre, an ambitious, multidimensional murder mystery presented in a pulp magazine format!

A GRITTY MYSTERY IN A GRITTY FUTURE

Subgenre #1 opens in Verge’s office. Ray, his A.I. assistant tries to wake him up as someone pounds the door as though they are trying to break in. He wakes up groggily and grabs his gun before heading for the door. No sooner does he reach it than a blue-skinned man wearing a pink, Asian-style outfit bursts in and attacks. Verge stuns him and drags him back into the hallway, assuming he was sent by the landlord.

He has an appointment at Decipher Cosmics, the largest corporation on the planet. They have a case for him, and the money is good. He has worked for them before. He meets with three representatives, who indicate they are hiring him for his discretion, which he understands to mean that something shady is going on. They take him to the scene of the crime. Three men dressed just like the man who came to his office are lying dead in a hallway. They’re local cult members, called I.P. Agents. His client has one lead for him – a person named Ronnie Lake.

Ray tracks Ronnie’s location and Verge goes to a fancy mansion that boasts a small but real grass lawn. Ronnie turns out to be a woman, an aficionado of pulp detective fiction, and a bit of a gardener. Verge does not see her as the likely murderer. She tells him about her encounter with Decipher Cosmics. This is an interesting bit of social commentary. She recently read a book which she considers the best book she has ever read. But on tracking down the author, she discovered it had been written by an A.I. Ronnie does know about I. P. Agents and knows where to find them. The only catch – she wants Verge to take her with him. She wants to see their library.

They go there and break in with Ray’s assistance. They do visit the library, a small collection of real, now one-of-a-kind books. Then Verge starts having odd problems. As he looks at the books, information on them, such as the title or the author’s name, is illegible to him, as though they were edited out of his perception. Ronnie has no such issues. Verge even sees himself illustrated in one of the books. While he tries to understand this, a handful of I.P. Agents attack them. They have been looking for Verge. They knock him out.

And Verge awakens as a barbarian living in a fantasy world. He has a small, feminine bug-elf assistant who asks him whether the wizard’s potion, the one that would send him to another reality, worked.

INTRIGUINGLY IMMERSIVE

The art of Subgenre #1 is fantastic. The characters are distinct and dynamic. The action is plentiful and clear. But what really stands out are the backgrounds. They are rich and full of detail without distracting from what the characters are doing. It only takes a couple pages showing Verge traveling through the city to give us a flavor of the city, the crowds, the soaring futuristic architecture of the corporation, and the distinctly older underbelly of the city.

Ray is an A.I. avatar, but she is a character in her own right in this book. The idea is that she is a projection from a contact lens device. People all have their own avatars, visible or not, depending on their settings. Ray seems more fully formed than most of the others. This fits in with the fact that Verge has been upgrading her. She has a full suite of illegal abilities she can use, which comes in extremely handy for a detective. But she also exists as a living being in the fantasy world Verge awakens in.

BOTTOM LINE: OFF TO A TERRIFIC START

Subgenre #1 opens strong, drawing us right into a murder mystery that almost looks like a setup to catch the detective himself. But when he awakens as a different self in an entirely different world, everything is thrown off kilter and suddenly the standard noir tropes no longer apply!

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