Scott Snyder and Francis Manapul’s Clear, a new Comixology Original series, is a neo-noir, cyberpunk murder mystery. It’s also a work drenched in the existential dread that comes from staying informed about all the crises facing the modern world and the accompanying feelings of impotence born from having no direct means of doing anything about them. Clear takes place in San Francisco in a near future where people use devices called veils to alter how they see the world around them, applying cosmetic skins to reality that let them feel like they’re in any place, any time, any genre. Detective Sam Dunes is one of the few who apply the “clear” setting, allowing him to see the world for what it is, and he increasingly wonders why he bothers. Though this is only the first of six issues in the miniseries, Clear seems intent on posing the same question to its readers.
