Imagine a world in which people don’t have to leave their homes to go to work; a world where we can just plug our consciousness into a machine and take care of business from there; a world where anyone, male or female, can adopt an identity of any sex, age, or race. Sounds a lot like your basic Internet or IRC tranny-tale, doesn’t it? Well if you can take that idea one step further and picture a society that relies on fully life-like hosts to go about their everyday lives while they just lie on a couch all day, you’d pretty much find yourself in the world of The Surrogates.

The Surrogates is a five-issue tale about a future-society that has become so dependent on their Surrogates (or “Surries”) that practically everyone from cops to businessmen just “plug-in” and rely on their mobile hosts to take care of the day’s work. Published by Top Shelf comics in 2005, the series takes a look at a bleak future that has seemingly taken Virtual Reality, Robotics, Internet, and even Prosthetics technology and combined them into a worldwide application that is all too believable. There is however, a small group of outcasts who have resisted the use of Surrogates and cling to Human Reality with much contempt for those still living in the cities. The tale is told through the eyes of Backbone City Cop Harvey Greer, as we follow his investigation of some Surrogate serial-killings, as well as what could possibly be a terrorist act against the Surry-dependent population.

Though maybe not the most original of ideas, as we have seen the concept of “plugging-in” in many a cyberpunk tale (Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and The Matrix to name a few), Surrogates writer Robert Venditti takes the concept and gives it a new level of aptness by bringing it a little closer to home. He set it in the not-too distant future, for one thing, and made the technology readily available to the entire society. Without giving anything away, it is important to note that a vital amount of this series’ impact stems from how dependent the society has become and how this echoes to our real-life dependence on similar technology. The message in the story alone makes this a must-read. Another thing I want to note is the richness of symbolism in the writing, as even the serial-killer himself is a walking metaphor for the raw power of reality, calling himself “The Steeplejack.” Noteworthy as well is Venditti’s film-quality pacing as the story unfolds in a very logical and gripping fashion.

The art in the book plays-off the story very nicely, as Brett Weldele provides a balance of cartoony figures and gritty textures. Clearly similar to Ben Templesmith’s artwork in ‘Fell’ and ‘30 Days of Night,’ Weldele very subtly uses his Neo-Impressionist style to first tell us that this is a story about ideas and things that are yet to be, while at the same time awakens us to the reality it represents. Though rough in some areas, the art generally bounces very nicely between comical and downright serious, which I feel is essential for a story that is mainly about the loss and gaining of one’s Humanity. With all that said, I highly recommend The Surrogates as a must-read on any comic-lover’s list, as it bridges the gap between classic graphic crime-noire and the entire cyber-punk genre very effectively.