If you’ve ever watched the original The Twilight Zone television series, you know the formula: a seemingly normal person, a high-concept sci-fi premise, and a terrifying twist that makes you question everything. It’s that beautiful, unsettling middle ground between light and shadow, and for over 60 years, it’s been a staple of cautionary storytelling. Now, the iconic anthology series is back in comic form, and I’m happy to report that The Twilight Zone #1: Blanks doesn’t just honor that legacy; it fully understands what made the show so great.
This all-new anthology series kicks off with “Blanks,” a self-contained one-shot penned by Dan Watters (Batman: Dark Patterns) and illustrated by Morgan Beem (Swamp Thing: Twin Branches). And for those of us who love that vintage feel, yes, the entire story is rendered in terrifying black and white. This aesthetic decision, using high contrast, deep shadows, and scratchy, frantic rendering, is essential to the atmosphere, giving the whole thing a spooky, almost woodcut-like quality that perfectly suits the ominous mood.
The story centers on Edward Kane, a super-rich industrialist whose obsession with escaping death has become an all-consuming monster. He’s the epitome of hubris, having spent a fortune chasing immortality, from the mythical Fountain of Youth to modern cryogenic research. As the story opens, he arrives at a clandestine luxury resort, a place he disdainfully calls a five-star hotel. Or a hospice.
Kane, who is secretly terminally ill, meets Doctor Culloch, who reveals their breakthrough: a virus engineered to give every cell in the body a factory reset. It’s designed to make cells forget their decay and rejuvenate them, essentially wiping out the aging process. Despite the research team’s plan for years of trials, a desperate Kane demands the treatment immediately, arguing they must move science forward to save the millions who are currently denied a life free of the ravages of time. He volunteers to be Patient Zero. The triumph, however, is short-lived.
Kane wakes up feeling twenty years younger; he got his wish. But as he walks the silent halls, looking for fanfare, he finds that the entire staff and all the patients have been replaced by “blank things,” faceless, silent, unresponsive statues. A rapidly deteriorating Doctor Culloch explains the horrific truth: the virus mutated once it left Kane. While it granted him eternal life, for everyone else, it’s an infection that makes the body forget its very humanity. It’s a chillingly simple concept: without death, our humanity is stripped away.
The punchline is classic Twilight Zone irony. The dying doctor begs Kane to destroy the helicopter and quarantine the virus. But Kane refuses, holding onto his narcissistic conviction that the “blank things” around him are free from pain and aren’t going to die. He flies off, intent on making his son’s birthday, only to realize he is now destined to spend eternity living upon a planet of blank things that once were mankind.
The Twilight Zone #1 is a masterful, dark allegory that truly understands the power of silent simplicity. It’s a beautifully executed cautionary tale about extreme vanity. Be careful what you wish for, because the price of immortality might be no longer recognizing the humanity in anyone around you.
Watters and Beem deliver a debut that is disturbing, morally challenging, and highly effective. For fans of classic science fiction and existential dread, this trip back into The Twilight Zone is an absolute pull. The series continues next issue with a story by Tom Scioli, promising more unsettling journeys into the middle ground.
‘The Twilight Zone’ #1 ‘Blanks’ Welcome us Back to the Fifth Dimension
The Twilight Zone #1 is a masterful, dark allegory that truly understands the power of silent simplicity. For fans of classic science fiction and existential dread, this trip back into The Twilight Zone is an absolute pull.
