Longer term readers of mine will know I love to browse Comixology Originals for new stuff to read, and go in as blind as possible.

That was the case with Simulation Theory #1; the cover seemed to be promising some proper, old school cyberpunk, and that’s more or less what the first issue gives us.

Ash is a mess; as one of the last remnants of society living in the real world, she’s a tangled web of poor decisions which lead to her being nearly killed over a gambling debt. It’s this incident which convinces her to finally join the vast majority of humanity in the virtual world of The Verse.

It’s easy enough; liquidate everything that’s yours in the real world, and the Corporation give you access to The Verse indefinitely. They even keep your real body in cryogenic suspension for up to a decade, in the highly unlikely event that you want to return to reality.

The problem is, almost as soon as Ash enters, it seems that there’s something sinister afoot, but what? No doubt we’ll find out as the story progresses, with Ash left with a big clue by the end of the issue.

I was unprepared for how unflinchingly brutal Simulation Theory would be, and not only does it not pull its punches in terms of the violence, but it’s also pretty matter of fact when it comes to sex too. Its depiction of a depressingly uneven future society is typical cyberpunk fare, but what’s even more worrying is just how much the cyberpunk of the 80s is essentially the future we’re now living in, give or take a few technological developments.

It’s pretty compelling, if incredibly dark, stuff. Ash is a nicely fleshed out, very flawed character, and she’s really put through the wringer in this debut issue; so much so that you’re willing her to escape her awful situation.

The artwork felt a little stiff and was subject to some strange choices of camera angles at times, with some odd distortion of the characters in any given scene, but this was almost certainly a deliberate, stylistic choice. I just didn’t find it a particularly appealing style, aesthetically.

Still, story wise I found Simulation Theory to be pretty compelling, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops over the course of the series.

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