Warning! Spoilers for Silver City #1 ahead!
The title of AfterShock's new series Silver City is deceptive in that it doesn't accurately convey the awesomeness of the unique, complex afterlife that characters find themselves in after dying in a fiery inferno. Silver City might be the place these poor souls find themselves upon their death, but the name is nowhere near as intriguing as the rules and lore behind it. Those who skip out on reading this coic probably think it's just a normal city. But it's not.
Luckily, readers who decide to give this new AfterShock series by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and Luca Merli a shot are almost immediately met with the fiery and fatal disaster that kills so many people. When an out of control plane careers into an airline terminal, it's made quite apparent that Silver City isn't like other cities. Readers learn the rules of this strange purgatorial metropolis through a roughneck woman named Ru who, like everyone else, doesn't remember how she died, as is protocol to help newcomers acclimate to their new environment without them getting overwhelmed.
Probably the most disheartening truth about Silver City is that, on the surface, it isn't that different from real life. The recently deceased are given ID numbers and moved about like cattle to be registered, a situation that is currently more chaotic than usual, as they all died at once. Like real life, they have to get jobs. There is even an orientation, the reliability of which is already put into question as many veterans refer to it as propaganda.
Some people also have patches on their skin because everyone's body is a cheap replication of the one they had on Earth, so all wounds do not heal. But a few pluses of this afterlife are that people don't age a day, nor do they gain any pounds or get hangovers, but they all can still get drunk and partake in explicit pastimes. They also get front row seats to the best concerts. But there are still fights, which is made clear during one of these concerts.
More intriguing, however, is the lore behind Silver City. As legend has it, the land of the living and the dead were once connected, allowing people and ghosts to interact with each other. But then the so-called Time Keepers had to go and ruin everything and enslave everyone. Of course, it didn't take them long to realize that the best way to lead is through fear, but people didn't really fear the one thing that should have been terrifying (death) because they knew what awaited them. So the Time Keepers separated the land of the living and of the dead, and further separated the latter by creating eight different levels, making it impossible for loved ones to find each other. Not knowing what came after life made death a frightening experience, allowing the Time Keepers to take control. And the only one who can stop them is the Silver Knight, the oldest soul in the universe who no one has seen or knows for sure exists, but whose image appears in various forms across Silver City.
Hopefully readers will be able to see past the normal, down-to-Earth title and cover that are so crucial nowadays to draw people into new series because the content here is truly compelling and out of this world. While the concept of characters finding themselves caught in some type of purgatory isn't new, AfterShock's Silver City takes it to the next level by mixing supernatural and natural elements together. It creates the illusion of an imperfect world, contrary to how most perceive how an afterlife should be, where people are not only subject to Earthly laws and lifestyles, but still possess mortal feelings, most of which are negative or sinful. Meanwhile, others can refuse to embrace the afterlife, not only proving that assimilation isn't natural, but can be rejected outright, diminishing the omnipotence of this world. And what story doesn't get exponentially better when there's the possibility that a super-powered knight exists?