Frostbite Review: A Story Worth Reading

Frostbite #1

Of all the comic books that have been in the reading stack over the past few months, I was probably intrigued by Frostbite a little more than most. It’s a Vertigo title, and that label carries with it the Hellblazer and Swamp Thing cred that I have come to adore.

If you’ve seen Frostbite on your local comic book store shelves, then you already know the details. The story is by Joshua Williamson with art by Jason Shawn Alexander, and the duo is presenting some pretty riveting things in this series.

Frostbite #2

Basically, the earth has entered another ice age, and a mysterious disease called (you guessed it, frostbite) freezes people from the inside out. There was no cure, until a doctor and his daughter found one. You get where this is going, because it’s a storyline that a lot of us have seen before in comics, books, movies, and much more. The two need to get the cure to a location and hire a team of professionals to get them there. Unfortunately, (and a bit cliché) there is a big bad hunting down the doctor and his daughter. So out to the frozen tundra they go, being pursued on all sides by adversaries. Not exactly what anyone would call a good time, unless of course you’re simply reading the book.

The thing that puts Frostbite on the next level is the depth of Williamson’s story. There are heat booths, which emphasizes the mini-economy that has popped up around something we all take for granted—simply being warmed. There are breakouts of society, Jack Frosts, Snow Queens, Firemen, and much more that have taken root to find a new way of life. That depth is what helps sell, what is probably a pretty much well-trodden dystopian tale. The frozen world is a bit unique, but in a lot of ways the books is Mad Max in Antarctica with a bunch of crazy people running around.

Still, the art from Alexander is something that is pretty interesting all along the way. The characters take on lives of their own, which is really the point of a good comic book. When the writing and art combines effortlessly, the result can be something borderline poetic. Does Frostbite succeed? Well, it’s too early to tell only three issues in, but the early returns look promising.

Frostbite #3

Williamson manages to draw readers in by giving them a stake in the characters. Unlike the superhero books stacked up in reading piles across the world, the independent world is loaded with characters WITHOUT fifty years of canon backing them up. Simply caring about what is happening to these characters is a challenge many books aspire to, but simply fall short.

It’s not a knock, just a note on the state of the industry. It’s easy to care about Batman and Spider-Man, because they’ve been a part of your life for decades, Keaton (one of the main characters on the contracted transport crew in Frostbite) has earn years of respect in a few short pages or the book stays on the shelf never to be opened.

Without giving too much away, because I hate spoilers and the corresponding alerts, the story moves fast in issue number one and only accelerates from there, and that is exactly how a comic book should read. Put the action into the pages and let the narrative develop, this exceeds my Vertigo anticipation.

So by all means, give Frostbite a chance if you’ve liked the Mad Max worlds, Highlander stories, or even some of the Star Wars stuff. The world isn’t as well-developed as those, but it holds all sorts of potential and possibility. From an investment standpoint, Frostbite is probably a buy and hold. Without a major movie or TV series, it’s going to be limited in appeal based on the darker story and strong imagery. That alone should grant it some collectability, but in the end, this a story that I’m going to see through to the end. And the eventual sequels that is.