Meridian City: Preview Edition

I picked this one up at New York Comic Con after meeting writer Georgia Lee. Glad I did.

Title: Meridian City: Preview Edition
Date: October 2011
Publisher: Alpha Girl Comics
Writer: Georgia Lee
Penciler: Silvio DB
Inker: Silvio DB
Colorist: Cabbral
Letterer: Amy Chu
Editor: Amy Chu

Clever SF setting for this crime story. The planet Glisa is tidally locked, meaning that one side of the planet always faces its sun and the other side always faces away. The result is a world that is half-burning and half-frozen, with a narrow overpopulated urbanized zone encircling the planet's prime meridian. With the habitable zone shrinking, Glisa is a harsh and crowded landscape. It's a difficult place to be a cop, especially if you volunteer for duty on the outer edge where heatstroke will kill you as quickly as the criminals will.

Detective Cannon Hunter (okay, admittedly the name is a bit hokey, but I'm willing to go with it) is tracking down a serial killer who makes his victims look like heatstroke deaths. But when she encounters a group of heat-tolerant people known as Firewalkers, she finds a link to the mysteries of her own past.

The setting is not the only good thing here. Cannon Hunter and her partner Dax have a tough noir-style partnership, but there is a good amount of depth in the characters and their interactions are fun. The action is realistic and the artwork looks great.

I've seen plenty of SF detective stories, but it was nice to see one that really evoked some thoughtful science fiction while still functioning as a hard-boiled cop story. Cannon Hunter is the kind of tough-while-realistic female character that is sadly too rare in comics and I look forward to reading more of her adventures.

Rating: 8.5/10