Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm not sure what the difference is between the Helix imprint and the Vertigo imprint at DC comics, but this is put out by Helix.   And I remembered it fondly, but don't think I fully understood this when I read it as a teen.   

I'm astounded by just how much this packs into one issue.   Set in a dystopian future in which corporations have taken over the world, and people live almost all their lives in a virtual reality that is promised to be not only better than real life, but easier and cleaner than real life. 

There are bubbles of thought that at first seem to be conspiracy theories, and then seem to be sent to and from those who are trying to keep the population under their thumb, perhaps even by spreading these conspiracy theories.   That's right: control through fear, and alternative facts, in fact an alternative history where people never lived without virtual reality, are pushed on the population as a whole. 

Cyberella's history itself - starting as a real life child star, and then mutating into a virtual reality avatar in a video game - presents just how money and fear can be used to exert people, coercing them into their own version of reality.   

Chilling and timely.   I'm not sure I want to read issue two immediately, but over the next couple of weeks?  I will be devouring this series.   (Although I only have nine issues of the twelve; I'm missing five and the last two, but I got these in a cheap set knowing that this was the case a decade or more ago.   I may try to track down five once I finish four, though.)