artist: Paul Green
I've previewed this upcoming comic previously, from creator Andi Ewington (best known for his brilliant 45, an interlocking portrait of superheroes), so having a look at the mini-series itself was a shear pleasure. As outlined before, Overrun is a story that takes advantage of computer terminology and gaming in a way that you'd have to somehow combine the more esoteric bits of The Matrix and Wreck-It Ralph to have experienced before. It's insanely clever.
It's also a heck of a well-paced adventure story, somehow managing to chug along and keep everything fluid at the same time (which is harder than it seems), sometimes in pages of sheer visual momentum and as the various characters collide in its narrative, centered around the unwitting protagonist Cooper Hudson (though his role is more complicated than that).
You don't have to keep everything straight to know Overrun synthesizes the experience common to most games, without the clumsiness that can be apparent in, say, your average Hollywood adaptation. The language of Overrun itself is probably its biggest selling point, creating a mythology out of what has been a part of our everyday culture without anyone having previously thought of it. In execution, it's kind of like how Star Wars and Indiana Jones breathed new life into the serials of days past, creating what has become modern cinema in the process.
Which means that Overrun has literally created a new genre, out of exceedingly familiar terms. That's a rare accomplishment indeed. And the whole thing is about as fun as you can get. What more could you ask for?
Check out weareoverrun.com for more about it.
