With the zombie horror genre alive and well in comic books, television and film, zombies might seem like a particularly well-covered premise, especially since contemporary zombie franchises like AMC's adaptation of The Walking Dead, continue to thrill fans worldwide. While the latest exploration of the sub-genre by new comic book publisher AWA Studios doesn't reinvent the premise, Benjamin Percy and Ramon Rosanas' upcoming title Year Zero brings an ambitious, yet grounded scope to the proceedings to help the series stand out from its counterparts in a solid debut.

The opening issue follows five wildly different individuals around the globe as an undead uprising begins to sweep across civilization. The ensemble includes an Arctic researcher examining frozen remains, a young boy in Mexico City during Day of the Dead, a stoic hitman in Tokyo on his latest assassination contract, a reclusive survivalist in the American Midwest and an American soldier in active combat zone. These seemingly disparate characters each face the zombie apocalypse in their own unique way as society burns down around them.

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More than just the different backgrounds and geographic locations for the series' main characters, Percy uses each of his leads to explore the end of the world through different philosophical perspectives. From an avowed atheist and Christian fundamentalism to traditional Buddhist and Roman Catholicism, the five protagonists make up a theological prism that shifts the presentation of the story as the dead rise. That alone certainly gives Year Zero a more ambitious scope than many of its contemporaries in the genre, while maintaining its focus on the person-on-the-street perspective approach keeps the action more visceral and engaging.

A lot of this comes from Percy's grounded, well-researched storytelling style. Even when writing superhero stories for Marvel or DC, Percy has always made sure to keep the focus on the emotional cores of the characters themselves while rooting even the more spectacular sequences in a sense of consequence-driven realism. Percy's X-titles like X-Force and Wolverine, in particular, have had a global quality to them that let Percy and those respective art teams showcase different regions and their cultural tropes. This time around, instead of being punctuated with superhero action, the proceedings delve into something far more gruesome and terrifying, but the multiple international perspectives certainly makes this issue a cut above the standard zombie fare.

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Working with acclaimed colorist Lee Loughridge, Ramon Rosanas brings all that global horror to startling visual life. The art team ably pivots with each change in perspective and setting and pulls off these narrative and visual transitions with understated ease instead of jarring readers from one character's P.O.V. to the next. Each perspective feels like its own book, in a way, and the art team excels at giving each character's journey its own unique visual flavor outside of the obvious change in scenery.

With its multi-faceted, philosophical approach, Year Zero is a more grounded, meditative take on the well-worn zombie sub-genre. The creative team delivers a series of tautly paced perspectives, each reacting to the rising dead with their own culturally informed ways. And with the apocalypse now underway and sweeping across the globe, the opening issue sets up plenty of intriguing ways for each of its five main characters to go, with the overall narrative surprisingly not cluttered by the multitude of protagonists. Under Benjamin Percy and Ramon Rosanas' deft handling, Year Zero soars above the typical expectations of its premise, bringing an ambitious fury to its familiar sub-genre.

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