Review: Chaotic Flux
The world has gone mad. Living nightmares stalk the land, devouring everything in their path. Fanatical paramilitary soldiers hunt down alien hybrids to purify the planet. Nowhere is safe.
A high-tech aircraft descends towards a blasted battlefield. Just before it touches down it morphs into a huge humanoid robot, opening its hands to reveal two figures: one human, one blue-skinned female. The human is Sorin, his exotic companion is Zithara, half human, half Zakarin. The robot is Strife, the third member of the team. A huge army is massed against them but they do not hesitate to leap into battle. But how did they get to this point?
Flashback: several months ago, Zithara in a thunderstorm battling three mutant 'Dreadfiends', all teeth, claws, eyes and prehensile tongues. Plus, just to add to the horror, they can also speak, taunting her with their hunger for her flesh. Luckily her Zakarin DNA gives her some natural defences: she can generate sharp red crystal shards from her skin, forming blades and spikes. However, these beasts are hard to kill and very hungry...
Chaotic Flux from writer Scott Payne and artist Bryan Balondo is a high-tech, high-octane thrill ride that hits the ground running from page one, dropping the reader right into the thick of it. This is a perplexing whirl of action, but grafdually pieces of the story begin to emerge. Zithara grew up in a secret experimental facility with other hybrid children and it seems like they are to be used as weapons.
The uncomfortable question arises: what are the real monsters here? The horrific mutant carnivores? Alien invaders? Or government, military or business kingpins and their all-too-human lust for power through bigger, better guns? Our darkest fantasies pale before the horrors of war. Like Godzilla, sometimes the beast is a metaphor for something just as frightening, but much closer to home.
The artwork is punchy but sharp with some very cool designs (the Dreadfiends truly are the stuff of nightmares). The story thunders along at breakneck pace, though, so you have to stay focussed in order to keep up. You may find yourself identifying with the heroine as she is overwhelmed by events and frequently asks herself WTF...? But all will become clear.
The first two issues are available now and the third is in the works. Many questions remain unanswered but there are tantalising hints of what is to come, a complex backstory with many surprises in store for the reader.
It is too soon to tell where this is going yet, but from what we have seen so far it seems that the future is only going to get darker...
Zak Webber
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