#668 = TERRORBYTES #1 by Mark Russell and Felix Ruiz (Mad Cave Studios, October 2025) TERRORBYTES is a promising new comics anthology that will focus on advanced technology and its consequences.
The first issue is scripted by noted social observer and satirist Mark Russell, a writer who deserves recognition for his creativity. Most of his stories contain a subtle underlying message/commentary that makes you think about it long after the story is finished.
Synopsis from the Mad Cave website:
In an age where technology intertwines seamlessly with our everyday lives, TERRORBYTES delves deeper into the shadows of our digital existence, exploring the uncharted territories of human consciousness shaped by technological evolution. This new series pushes the boundaries of speculative fiction, presenting stories that challenge the very essence of identity, morality, and reality in a hyper-connected world. In the first issue, a headset that lets users relive their greatest memories at the moment of their death extracts a brutal price.
The story opens over one hundred years from now as an expeditionary force lands their spacecraft on Earth. They send out an android trio to explore, expecting resistance only to encounter none whatsoever. They enter a museum of ancient technology and find a data recorder with a visual that indicates what may have led to an apparently abandoned, desolate planet.
The video shows how Final Daze became the most controversial and interesting new application at Investorcom 2035:
“The Final Daze headset plugs directly into your cerebral cortex, meaning that you not only see your recorded memories, you experience them as if they were happening in real time. . . . It blocks pain. It blocks dementia. It blocks everything. . . . In short . . it lets you die the way you lived.”
The salesman hawking Final Daze is so confident in its properties that he underwent the minor brain surgery required and wears the implant within the back of his neck. He succeeds in getting a sufficient number of investors to begin beta testing in a poor African territory after making a deal with the government. Nobody’s worried about a few fatalities along the way.
However a mishap occurs on the travel to Africa and the salesman obtains first-hand experience of Final Daze in action. It’s left up to our imagination to speculate why the androids find an empty planet. THREE AND ONE-HALF STARS. Promising, and I may be back for a new story in Issue #2.
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