Oblivion Song is writer Robert Kirkman and artist Lorenzo De Felici's latest graphic novel with Image Comics. It follows Nathan Cole’s story as he travels to Oblivion in search of missing people. Unlike The Walking Dead, this isn’t a post-apocalyptic drama. The Transference has left many without husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children and friends. Ten years, 300,000 people lost and another dimension later, Philadelphia will never be the same. The world may want to forget, but Nathan won’t.
The Transference is a recorded historical event that occurred in modern-day America. News coverage, memorials, movie adaptations and museums commemorate the event. Still, no one knows why the Transference occurred or if it can happen again. There’s a crater that leads to another dimension in the middle of Philadelphia and people just kind of learned to live with it.
“A 30-square mile chunk of an area in Philadelphia just traded places with another dimension,” Kirkman told Player.One. “Everyone that was on that chunk found themselves in another dimension. In our dimension, a big chunk of the city turned into this crazy different dimension in space with all these monsters in it and attack the city. It was a big event.”
The city and U.S. put a lot of time and resources into trying to save the people. Nathan was a part of the project that helped save many who were stuck in Oblivion. The project lead to technology Nathan still uses to travel between dimensions. But over time, Philadelphia moved on. The created a monument to honor the people they lost during the Transference. The monument now serves a list of names Nathan has dedicated his life to crossing off one-by-one. At least that’s what it appears to be at first glance.
The first Oblivion Song issue reveals Nathan’s personal connection to Oblivion. Amongst the missing people was Nathan’s brother, Edward. Nathan never gave up hope of finding his brother, so he continued to travel back to Oblivion. His determination to find his brother led to finding a couple, who tell him there’s a community of people who actually want to live in Oblivion. They’ve survived in the dimension and created a life there. Turns out, Ed is one of them.
Nathan doesn’t know who Ed became, and neither does the reader. There’s a reason some of the people of living in Oblivion want to stay. Nathan might want to find Ed, but that doesn’t mean the feeling is mutual.
“Maybe not,” Kirkman teased when asked if Ed misses Nathan. “Who knows? [Ed] is definitely a troubled individual. He’s someone who didn’t have the best of lives on Earth, which is why he’s thriving in Oblivion. We’ll delve into that story as we get deeper into the series. Nathan is completely wrecking his life in order to find his brother and bring him back. What happens when his brother doesn’t want to go back? That’s a big element of the first arc.”
The people who return from Oblivion have a difficult time adjusting to life on Earth. Readers will learn early on how traumatized the victims of the Transference are when they return. For example, the woman Nathan rescues in the first issue is triggered by dogs barking. Nathan asks the woman to meet, seeking information about her time in Oblivion. De Felici beautifully captures her trauma and the anguish in her face. She’s scared of Oblivion Song, which is the nickname for the sounds people become accustomed to while living in the alternate dimension.
And Oblivion is fucking scary. From the vegetation to the creatures, everything in this dimension wants to kill you. The animals are warped and even some of the people living there appear warped. It’s a place where you’ll need to lose your humanity in order to survive. And yet, Nathan keeps going back. At first it might’ve been to find his brother Ed, but you’ll quickly learn there’s something more drawing Nathan back. Oblivion caused a lot of pain and chaos, but Nathan has a level of respect for the world that’s a bit odd. In fact, it almost seems like Nathan misses the Oblivion Song.
“It’s a level a respect we should’ve had for the rainforest on [Earth],” Kirkman said. “Nathan recognizes there’s an event that happened brought humans there, but had that event not occurred then those creatures would be living their lives. While these creatures are trying to hunt people and they do sometimes kill people, that’s just their nature as animals. He thinks it’s wrong for him to disrupt their ecosystem, to interact with anything in a negative way. In his mind, there could be ramifications for that dimensions that he wants to avoid. That’s why you see him hiding when other creatures come by as opposed to killing them.”
And it only get more complicated. Readers will meet Duncan, an Oblivion survivor who gives Nathan the reality checks he desperately needs. Bridget is Duncan’s wife, who’s trying to readjust to life with him after believing he was dead for so long. There’s Heather, Nathan’s girlfriend, who works for the U.S. government and doesn’t support his travels to Oblivion. There’s Heather’s boss, Director Ward, who might know more about Oblivion than he leads. And of course, there’s Ed, who is alive in Oblivion, but we don’t know who he’s become.
The first issue of Oblivion Song will be released March 7, 2018. Check out the trailer and art from the comics here.
