Postal tells the story of an American town like none other.  Inside this town are the vilest criminals, sent there to live with one last chance before they are out of chances.  The government agrees to it, to keep all the bad eggs in one basket.  While this is a compelling enough setting for a lot of potential stories, the manner in which they go about telling this story is very different.  Instead of focusing on the lives of the criminals they focus on Mark, the presumably innocent postal clerk with a crush on the only waitress in town.  He also has Asperger’s Syndrome which makes all of his actions distinctly different from the others.  Marks’ condition causes it that he recreates damaged letters, and in so doing finds out about the lives of the town’s residents.

Where things start to get interesting is when he tries to solve a minor mystery involving one of the resident and why a case of medication was denied to him.  What follows is Mystery Solving 101, simplistic in a sense, but also on point as Mark intends to do no harm, and maybe only hopes to impress the waitress.  Of course in a town of criminals, nothing is so simple as being denied medication, and Mark soon finds himself on the wrong end of a shotgun.

Everything about this story makes sense.  The setting is unique, the perspective is unconventional and the characterizations are mostly completely complementary to the story.  The issue reads fast because it is so engaging, and the writers are capable of making characters that are easily to empathize with from the get go.  While the series might be heading in some dark directions which are hard to see from here, there is very little wrong with this first issue, and is one of the strongest lead-ins to a new story that the medium has seen in a while.

Story: Bryan Hill and Matt Hawkins Art: Isaac Goodhart
Story: 9.5  Art: 9.5  Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy