To be dystopian, a work needs to foreground the oppressive society in which it is set, using that setting as an opportunity to comment in a critical way on some other society, typically that of the author and/or the audience. In other worlds, the bleak dystopian world should encourage the reader or viewer to think critically about it, then to transfer this critical thinking to his or her own world. This volume in the Critical Insights series presents...

"Think your life is hard? Anwen Bakian's family lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, scrounging for food and avoiding giant bugs intent on eating them. Mom left years ago to join the Nova force and never came back. So it's just Anwen, her dad, her sister and her grandpa against the huge insects. That is, until she finds a mysterious stone that may or may not hold incredible cosmic power. Don't miss this incredible new book by DEADPOOL writer Gerry...

The worst of nature and the worst of science will bring the human race to the brink of extinction. Master Sergeant Reed Beckham has led his Delta Force Team, codenamed Ghost, through every kind of hell imaginable and never lost a man. When a top secret Medical Corps research facility goes dark, Team Ghost is called in to face their deadliest enemy yet--a variant strain of Ebola that turns men into monsters. After barely escaping with his life, Beckham...

Matty Roth's story comes to an end, as does the Second American Civil War that tore a nation in half. Includes an epilogue issue that removes any doubt that "DMZ, at its core, is a love letter to New York City"--Page 4 of cover.

"Humanity continues to fight for its right to a future. Rentaro's enemy is the sinister Kagetane Hiruko, but there's another threat-a gigantic Stage Five Gastrea that threatens to destroy everything Rentaro has worked to protect. Overwhelming odds demand unthinkable sacrifices, but sometimes even that may not be enough... "--

An entire subculture of end-of-the-world themes has been producing radically unique films with startling perspectives of humanity facing the end of all things. Moore provides a frame of reference on how the characters in these films behaved when their worlds were on the brink of desolation. From I am Legend to Hunger Games, as well as smaller, more obscure films, you'll find an alphabetical chronicle of humanity's struggles through nuclear war, global...

"In the dystopian nations of BATTLEWORLD, the mutants of New York City must fight to survive the rule of the Sentinels. At their center is Kate Pryde, a heroine tried and tested by war, and mother of the last mutant ever to be born before the purges of the Mutant Control Act. With revolution in the wind, the X-Men are not a broken team with nothing left to lose, but a desperate family with more at risk than ever before!"--Amazon.com.

"Spinning out of the universe-shattering events of Secret Wars comes a new twist on the X-Men classic that's a whole hell of a lot hotter than you remember. 5 years ago a band of demons rose up out of the fiery depths and turned Manhattan into Hell on Earth. The X-Men fought to vanquish the demon horde and... The X-Men failed. Welcome back to the Inferno. On this the fifth anniversary of Manhattan's fall, Piotr Rasputin is leading a small band of...