For those new to the series, the high concept idea is, “what happens after an alien invasion?” So instead of following how we beat back the aliens with only a plucky fighter pilot and an awkward mathematician, you get to see the events immediately following the end of Independence Day. How does society cope? Can society cope?

It’s a smart idea, and straight forwardly written, as usual, by Giggenheim. The closest analogue to the book is The Walking Dead, focusing more on the “Governor” and “Fear The Hunter” arcs, where humans are the real enemies. And if anything, at least for the first five issues of this extremely accessible reboot, the major theme Guggenheim is dealing with is, “how badly do human beings suck?” The answer? A whole lot.

The first issue effectively set up and brought us up to speed on the concept and characters, so if you’re looking to get into this, that’s your best bet. As of now, though, we’re knee deep in the end of the first arc. The town of Red Lion, one of the last safe havens for mankind, is under attack, and our band of anti-heroes has just discovered that President Clinton (you read that right) is alive and well.

The fifth issue deals with the fall-out from that particular bombshell, without giving away the whole kaboodle. And is par for the course for this series, things get worse before they get better.

Here’s what doesn’t work about this series: so far, plot-wise, the President Clinton reveal included, nothing has been breaking any new ground, or blowing me away. As mentioned, if you’ve read or seen any post-apocalyptic fiction, the plot beats are going to feel pretty familiar to you. However, this is a bit of a quibble, because there’s a lot that works.

In particular, the time dashes and flashbacks of the story effectively illuminate character choices in the “present,” without ever feeling shoved in. And the back-up stories, “Tales of the Resurrection,” are great for fleshing out the greater world of the book, and giving us important teases for the future. Where Y The Last Man, for example, was focused almost entirely on Yorick’s journey, this is showing us what’s happening in the world at large.

And the back up in issue #5 is worth the cover price alone. The art is reminiscent of the late Seth Fisher, and gives us a surprisingly different view of the invasion and its aftermath.

End verdict? Fans of The Walking Dead of Y The Last Man will certainly want to go back and pick up issues of Guggenheim’s series. And for everyone else, if you’re looking for a solid tale, well done, look no further.

The FBI unit investigating the phenomena is who the show follows. Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) as Mark Benford, leads a group of agents who try to piece what happened to cause the blackout and piece together their “flash forwards.” The reason that these are so special is that visions are shared exactly by the people in each vision. For instance one of the other agents has a meeting with their counterpart in England. In his flash forward, and after the blackout, the two confirmed they had the exact flash forward despite being thousands of miles apart. Benford’s vision shows him in his office, frantically trying to solve a case called the Mosaic project while someone with a tattoo of three stars on his arm is hunting him down.

In his vision, he is wearing a friendship bracelet, a corkboard filled with pictures and details about the Mosaic case include the name D. Gibbons, three stars consistent to the tattoo on his hunter, a map with Baltimore labeled, 137 Sekunden (137 seconds in German), photographs of burnt baby dolls, amongst other details.

Other interesting flash forwards are Benford’s wife, Olivia played by Sonya Walgner (who is showing up in every one of my favorite shows from Lost, to Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) who has an affair with a complete stranger in her vision. Olivia plays a doctor, whose intern was contemplating suicide right before the blackout. His flash forward was to a future where he was alive. Another agent, Janis Hawk played by Christine Woods, is pregnant in her vision when she doesn’t even have a boyfriend. The one thing in common with the visions is that the date was exactly the same. April 29th, 2010 and everyone remembers the details as if they actually experienced it. Also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the visionary day is also during the last week of the prime time television season. One last detail that’s tickling my brain is that surveillance footage at a Detroit Tigers game in Comerica Park showed a shadowy figure in a black trenchcoat moving while everyone is passed out. The plot thickens…

While fellow PCS staffer, Shola Akinnuso might be apprehensive following another network science fiction series in the same vein as Lost, I am unapologeticaly hooked already. There are A to B list actors involved, the story has a great hook, and it’s co-created by David S. Goyer who comic book fans will know from writing Justice Society of America with Geoff Johns and the screenplay for Batman Begins. Also Marc Guggenheim is a writer on the show and is no stranger to writing solid episodic stories of this nature. (If you haven’t checked out his fine Oni post-alien invasion comic, Resurrection, track down the first trade paperback for $6!!) And anyone who reads comics should have caught easter eggs like D. Gibbons (do I need to explain) and a billboard advertising Lost’s Oceanic Airlines.

But the biggest thing I am most concerned about though is co-lead, John Cho (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek) and his character, Demitri Noh. As a first-generation Asian-American, the sexification of the Asian-American Male is long overdue. The World Wars and Vietnam did wonders for the Asian-American woman, and Hispanics and Blacks have made great strides but what about my Asian brothers? Every time we’re portrayed either as a pencil protecting nerd, a camera-toting tourist, a scholar fresh off the boat, or a drugged out burnout. Never has an Asian male been cast in a straight lead role of a major network television show who is an actual Asian-AMERICAN. No disrespect to Daniel Dae Kim (plays a native Asian in Lost), Masi Oka (plays a nerd in Heroes), the late Pat Morita (owner of Arnold’s Diner in the comedy, Happy Days), but this is a different role. More so than any draw of science fiction, more so than a great another potential television drama, I am excited that Cho has a lead role as an un-stereotyped Asian-American, someone I can relate to.

Cho’s character Demetri Noh is also in the FBI, Benford’s partner, and engaged to Gabrielle Union’s character Zoey Andata. Hold on, an Asian-American male lead AND an interracial relationship? Has the apocalypse arrived? Have my dreams have come true? No sooner do I wipe the tears of joy watching the episode when the bomb hits… Demitri did not experience a flash forward… waitaminute… WHAT?!! (Cue in the car screeching crash sound effect and woman screaming in the background.) That’s right, those who didn’t experience a flash forward can assume that they don’t get to live to see April 29th. Can’t see anything if you’re not alive. There must have been a typo, he must have gotten the wrong script, I mean we all know it’s the black men who don’t get to see the end of the show, wait, that’s just horror flicks, or is it? Maybe, just maybe, he has a big movie lined up and can only commit to one season of the show.

So I gather myself while watching this, beleaguered, knowing that the one character that’s brought me into this show, is going to get offed by season’s end. Or is he? And this is where the story gets interesting. Why did everyone get a glimpse of the future, was it to ensure it happens, or was it to prevent it? My man, John is going to get to the bottom of this. This much I’m sure of. And if not, well at least go out with a bang, John.

Let’s track his survival rate and see if in fact, he does makes it through the entire first season. I’m not greedy, I mean I could hope he’s on for the whole series run, but we don’t know if it will make it past the first 13 episodes. But the buzz is pretty good. Aside from my Demitri Noh watch, I found all of the other elements of Flash Forward impressive, extremely captivating and well-worth my time. Flash Forward is my new favorite show of the season and I’ll be watching ABC on Thursday night–at least while Demitri is alive.

I was raised in a black, church-going, military family. My grandfather did 30 years in the Air Force, my mom did a few, my dad was in Gulf War I, I’ve had various relative enlist, and it seems like everybody I knew from high school is either married or joined some branch of the military. I guess all of this is just to say that I’m not coming at Amazing Spider-Man #574 from the position of a total neophyte or someone who doesn’t know nothing about nothing. If you couldn’t tell from my body of work, I tend to pay attention to those things, if only because all three things are so close to my heart.

The crux of ASM #574 is that Flash Thompson was sent to Iraq, with the surprise revelation that he lost his legs rescuing a fellow soldier. The issue tells the story of Flash’s motivations during the story, even while massaging continuity (Vietnam quietly replaced with an unnamed jungle) and bringing the character up to date.

Overall, I really enjoyed the issue. Other than one hollow note (the origin of the name Flash comes from a high school date), this is probably Guggenheim’s strongest piece of writing to date. Careful attention is paid to the reality and treatment of the military in the book, including a desk-driving general and slang. These aren’t your cardboard cut-out soldiers. We don’t get the guy with the kid at home, or the crazy war-thirsty jerkoff. The little attention given to them paints them as just regular people.

It’s Flash’s story, though, and the issue is mostly told in the first person, as Flash tells his story to the general who is reviewing him for a Medal of Honor. It’s in an issue of Spider-Man because Flash is Spidey’s number one fan, and the text shows how Spider-Man has influenced Flash’s life over the years. When Flash needed a hero, his abusive father was found lacking. Instead, he looked to Spider-Man, resulting in iconic shots of Spider-Man versus the Sinister Six, or lifting a heavy thing, or fighting the Kingpin head-on, and so on, when Flash needed that extra motivation.

It isn’t clear in the text whether Spidey was on his mind during the action itself, or simply making parallels in the retelling, but both work thematically. Guggenheim is walking a fine line here, and could easily tip over into equating the exploits of Spider-Man, a fictional character, with the very real soldiers over in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Instead, I found that it was just a story about where heroism comes from.

Everyone has someone or something that they look up to. It’s that person in the back of your mind who inspires you, or whose memory you want to live up to, whether it’s What Would Jesus Do or I Wanna Be Like Mike. It’s a very human thing to look outside yourself for strength, and I think that this book does a good job of doing that. Flash’s father was abusive, so he was right out as far as heroes go. Spider-Man, however, was young, capable, and an easy target for a young guy who needed help. Flash latched on and became a huge fanboy. When he needed to push, he could look to Spidey.

I can see how this could ruffle some feathers, but I thought it was done perfectly respectfully. Nowhere is anyone but Flash’s motivations attributed to Spider-Man, and it’s always in an inspirational manner. It isn’t about how awesome Spider-Man is, but rather about how important heroes are to people, albeit illustrated on a very small scale.

This issue prompted me to put some real thought as to whether or not it was appropriate for comics, and superhero comics in particular, to address real world issues. One man’s “respectfully handled” is another man’s “complete travesty.” Why can we do World War II comics by the boatload, but more modern issues are taboo? Is it the time and distance that separates us and makes it seem less real? Is the War on Terror, or Insert Cause/Injustice/Action of Your Choice Here, somehow more real and troubling than the Big One?

I don’t think so, and I think this issue is a good reason why. If you can do your best to treat an issue respectfully, do the research (we can call it “due diligence” so we can pretend to be adults), and generally just put your best foot forward, I don’t think that any subject is taboo.

I believe that fiction is important. As much as I hate to quote a Superman comic to support a point, I have to say that one of my favorite Superman moments is in Action Comics #775, where Superman defeats the hot cynical superteam of the moment and says, “Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us.”

The fictional nature of something does not decrease its importance any more than relating something fictional to something real insults the real thing. Sometimes you have to push toward that fictional ideal to get the job done. Sometimes it’s your father, sometimes it’s Spider-Man. There is little difference between the two, and both serve different purposes for different people. Sometimes, dreams are just what you need.

I’ve personally known people who were big on the Punisher, Sgt Rock, or (X character) who spent some time in Iraq. We didn’t spend a lot, or really any, time talking about how the adventures of Clint Barton helped them in the field, but people generally have pet heroes, or tattoos of heroes, for specific reasons. One guy in Iraq using Spider-Man as inspiration? I can buy that.