Snowpiercer Volume 1 - The Escape Review

First of all I would like to thanks Titan Comics for providing this copy and asking for a review I’m truly thankful.  

Before it was Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi epic starring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Alison Pill, Ed Harris, Ewen Bremner, Octavia Spencer, Kang-ho Song and Ko Asung, Snowpiercer or Le Transperceneige is a French graphic novel by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.

The first volume titled The Escape is already out and it starts of by very successfully introducing the post-apocalyptical world where the story takes place, the immense train where the action is centered and the social paradigm that is the sparkle that gives reason to the actions and decisions of the characters.

In Snowpiercer Earth has been engulfed in a new ice age and the last remnants of society are jam-packed in a train run by perpetual motion engine. In this new society and very much like a train people are divided into various classes all throughout the train the first class at the front, the second class in the middle and the third class at the back. The first class lives in luxurious and spacious accommodations. The second class less so but the third class, from where our hero comes from, is an overpopulated under hygienic hell whole from which many try to escape but none can.

Proloff, the “hero” is able to escape from the back, not to lead a revolution or improve in any way his “people’s” accommodation’s or life, no he is simply trying to escape to get a better life. Adeline is a social activist from the second class that wants to help those in third to get a better “life”, but unfortunately her plan derails so to speak when she meets Proloff and is put in quarantine with him.

I’m not going to get into much detail since I don’t want to spoil the rest of the book, but it’s safe to say that the first class hates and fears and despises those at the back and just wished they weren’t there.

This is not your usual story of social equality triumphing over a discriminatory social system set in a dystopian world, no what makes this stand out from the rest is its attention to detail, it’s like a micro representation of society, even if a gruesome one. You have zealots who worship the train’s engine, you have a weirdly fascinating car for “Mama”, the giant, living, regenerative meat thing that feeds the train’s habitants, you even have a brothel car for those that live in the upper class, plus all the nooks and crannies that hide fascinating secrets.

All of these intricate details and observations on a “new” society in addition to great storytelling makes for an extremely fantastic and timeless read. The expressive and yet at times minimalistic drawings suck you in, even if at times the secondary characters and some guards look the same.

And don’t worry on it being a French graphic novel as Titan Comics released a week ago the first volume translated in English with the second volume, titled The Explorers to be released this month on February 25^th.

9/10

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