Age-Old Conflict VS. Brave New World

by Vince Brusio

Sometimes, the best story about the future can be concocted from what’s in front of you at the moment. One of the first questions you would ask is, of course, do we achieve world peace? And, of course, the answer is “no.” This leads you then to wonder if the armies have advanced any to make peace attainable? The problem with that answer is…it’s classified. But if you want a heads-up on what the battlefield of the future looks like, check out our PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview with writer Iván Brandon, and what he has to say about his latest sci-fi title, VS #1 (DEC170585) from Image Comics!

VS #1 is in comic shops February 7.

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Vince Brusio: War a spectator sport? So let’s see. You took Logan’s Run, Rollerball, Death Race 2000, Patriot Games, crammed them in the transporter pod from The Fly, and BAM! We get VS #1 come out the other side, right? Or was it another vision that helped make this book a reality? Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets Starship Troopers? Tell us about some of the ingredients that went into this book’s recipe.

Iván Brandon: Not really any of those things, though we’ve both I’m sure seen a bunch of them, but none of them came into the conversation. I should probably watch Patriot Games, right?

We just talked a lot about weird stuff we thought would be fun, really.

Vince Brusio: If war is now a spectator sport, what does this say about the morality of the people? How has the population degenerated to the point where we now view death as entertainment? Has religion been discarded? Are all moral compasses broken?

Iván Brandon: I don’t think I’d necessarily say it’s degenerated at all. War has always been an incredibly popular genre in fiction, I think you could even argue that watching it live creates more engagement with the consequences of it. In the old days declaring war had a shared cost to the country, now most people block it out of their minds. Our current wars are like a show the average person never got around to watching.

Vince Brusio: Let’s say we download the app that lets us apply to the organization that recruits these superstar soldiers. What are the requirements? What are the physical demands of these soldiers? Do their minds have to be as hard as their 6-pack abs? Is emotion or compassion a liability? Who makes the cut in this elite corps?

Iván Brandon: Like the current military, your phone’s not going to get you onto the front lines. What it takes to survive varies, and the ones that know the answer are not talking.

Vince Brusio: Tell us about the book’s main character, Satta Flynn. If Satta goes through the airport screener, and we’re looking at Satta with X-ray eyes, what do we see? Will we like what we see?

Iván Brandon: The Industrial Guard’s designs are proprietary and confidential.

Vince Brusio: How does Esad Ribić’s artwork make this story breathe? How does it put us there? How was it that he was the choice to make VS come to life, and if you could preview some of the visuals he’ll soon be delivering, what will we see?

Iván Brandon: Esad wasn’t so much a choice, he’s the co-creator, and he built this world with me from scratch. It wouldn’t exist without him. What you’ll see is one of the best designers out there pulling you into an intricate and surprising world that has an incredible depth to it that’ll become more and more clear as we go.

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Vince Brusio writes about comics, and writes comics. He is the long-serving Editor of PREVIEWSworld.com, the creator of PUSSYCATS, and encourages everyone to keep the faith...and keep reading comics.