Repulse

Written by Szymon Kudranski with Jeff Mariotte
Art by Szymon Kudranski

There have been a number of these prestige format one-shot graphic novels coming out of Image lately, and many of them have been very good.  Repulse definitely falls in that category.

Repulse is a noir-ish science fiction police drama, centred on Detective Sam Hagen, who works in the After Crime unit.  What this means is that, when a crime is committed, Sam injects some of the victim's dead brain cells into his own head, and is able to see the last few seconds of that person's life.  This is not without it's own risks to his health and sanity, but ever since his son disappeared, he hasn't felt much like his own life matters.

Sam is called in when a retired cop is found murdered, and he comes to believe that the perpetrator is a robot, which is still strange in this future world.  Slowly, we learn that there is a connection between the cops that are getting murdered, and a case that Sam worked on when he was assigned to Internal Affairs.

The story questions the nature of the human soul, and whether or not robots are able to develop one.  It covers some very similar ground to the Image series Chew, but plays it straight instead of for laughs.  Kudranski's art is dark and evocative, and a perfect match to his story.  Recommended.