200

This vibrant, bubbly graphic novel is set in a drudgingly mundane future with an absurd social contract. The setup: a world, about 200 years from now, in which everyone has two centuries to live before their expiration date and unceremonious execution—unless they’re able to pass a test, shrouded in mystery, that will gift them eternal life. The story opens with Eva Thorne preparing sourly for her own bicentennial and recalling a long, long romantic past with her newly absent partner. As it turns out, her test involves an examination of their relationship, with time travel, tough choices, tenderness, and a smattering of romance novel–level intimacy. Brody’s (“The Continuum Trilogy”) snappy, straightforward storytelling, coupled with Rivera’s noir angles and delightfully improbable future-scapes, is imperfect—even a bit of an amateur imitation of classic sci-fi—but the book manages to be both tongue-in-cheek and entirely compelling. The rollicking, confident execution (no pun intended) of this comic adventure makes it a true page-turner, and luckily a second volume seems to be in the works.