Working homicide 22,000 miles up on an orbiting energy platform, in a five-mile-long jury-rigged steel city stuffed with a half million people, with no help from your so-called colleagues back on Earth, is more than tough…it’s murder!

Take a homicide cop story and mix it with a sci-fi setting and you have The Fuse #1. A solid debut that is familiar yet not at the same time, and that not is what really sucked me in.

Written by Antony Johnston, this new crime series matches up a relatively fresh homicide detective with a long time vet. It’s a dynamic we’ve seen before, but it’s clear from their interactions there’s much more to each of them that what at first we’re lead to believe.

It’s the interaction of characters that’s the draw here. We get a tease of the world they’ll work in and only a bit of the crime so far. Like a good cop serial the partnership is what really is the draw.

Backing up Johnston on art duty is Justin Greenwood. I really dig the art style here, and it’s a good fit for a sci-fi setting. My only issue is while the characters are very unique, there’s some things when it comes to nationality that’d be difficult to do in art, but Johnston’s dialogue helps lay all of that out.

This is murder, mayhem, and mystery—22,000 miles straight up. Like all good cop stories, it’ll live and die by the interaction of it’s main pairing, and so far this is a decent one. The first issue left me intrigued. This’ll be one to watch out for.

Story: Antony Johnston Art: Justin Greenwood
Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Buy

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review