Wild's End

Preview: Abnett & Culbard's 'Wild's End: The Enemy Within'
Preview: Abnett & Culbard's 'Wild's End: The Enemy Within'
Preview: Abnett & Culbard's 'Wild's End: The Enemy Within'
Dan Abnett and I.N.J. Culbard's Wild's End is most aptly and succinctly described as War of the Worlds meets Wind in the Willows; a classic alien invasion tale set in an English village in the 1930s, with the unusual twist that all the characters are anthropomorphic animals --- an approach that allows readers to make a different kind of attachment to the book's beleaguered cast. Sometimes animal heroes are actually easier to identify with and sentimentalize. In the first Wild's End story, the residents of Lower Crowchurch averted the threat of alien invasion --- or so they believed. The sequel, The Enemy Within, posits that the aliens may already be among us. Of course, the 'us' in this situation consists of adorable talking squirrels and cats and foxes as they wrestle with the paranoia, violence and horror of alien infiltration. Check out an exclusive preview.
REVIEW: Abnett & Culbard's 'Wild's End' #1
REVIEW: Abnett & Culbard's 'Wild's End' #1
REVIEW: Abnett & Culbard's 'Wild's End' #1
In my experience, the best comics are the ones that answer questions that you didn't even know you were asking until you saw them, and Wild's End #1 does that pretty beautifully. The question: Wouldn't War of The Worlds have been better if it was about a sleepy English hamlet populated entirely by friendly anthropomorphic animals? The answer: Yes. Yes it would be. As weird as that premise sounds, it's not that shocking that the book would turn out great. It's the product of writer Dan Abnett (Guardians of the Galaxy) and artist INJ Culbard (Brass Sun), and if there's one thing I've learned from previous experience with those creators, it's that they're more than capable of taking strange sci-fi premises and running with them to create something incredible -- which is exactly what they've done here.