Great Pacific #1

Our planet is being trashed & dumped by overwhelming landfills of plastic & garbage, despite humanity’s efforts to recycle, it all seems hopeless. For millionaire industrialist & CEO of his late father’s company, Chas Worthington has a solution, but it’s a solution his colleagues do not share and on the day of his birthday, Chas Worthington will give himself the greatest gift of all.

The Team

Written & created by Joe Harris (Vampirella & The Scarlet Legion TP, Creepy Comics Vol. 1) & Martin Morazzo. Illustrated & coloured by Martin Morazzo (The Network). Published by Image Comics.

The Pros & Cons

There aren’t that many comics about the environment these days, the only other title I can think of is The Massive from Dark Horse Comics (see the reviews for #1, #2, #3, #4 & #5). Both of these titles are about the environment, but have totally different stories. The protagonist of this story is a young playboy millionaire named Chas Worthington, at first he seems like a naïve, spoiled brat with too much time & money on his hands, who seems to be played by competitors & the powers that be, but cleverly turns the tables on them. The comic opens up with Chas waking up on the shore of a huge landfill, only to be startled by a two-headed seagull and then the story proceeds to explain how he got into his current predicament. The protagonist is likeable enough, the characters due their part and his situation is very intriguing, intriguing enough to merit a return for future issues.

The story is written by Joe Harris. Harris’ body of work seems to mostly be horror comics, so this is a complete 180 for the writer. I like writers who like to steer away from their familiar territory and try something new & different. There’s a lot of mumbo jumbo about politics & business, but for the most part you don’t have to be working on Wall Street to get the gist of it. The plot also has a few surprises and kept me intrigued from beginning to end. Illustrator Martin Morazzo’s style gorgeously displays his unique drawings with every vibrant page. It’s not easy to make a giant landfill look beautiful, but he pulls it off.

The Outcome

I really enjoyed this first issue and I feel that with a story like this, there’s plenty of potential for a long & fruitful series.