‘Made in Korea #1’ (review)

Written by Jeremy Holt
Art by George Schall
Published by Image Comics

Made in Korea #1 takes readers into the most unnerving type of dystopia: the one that isn’t far removed from our current reality. There are no ruined cities or piles of smoking rubble here. There are still after-hours drinks with colleagues and birthday parties.

Somehow, that makes humanity’s impending extinction even more chilling.

Most people cannot have biological children.

For reasons no one can identify yet, infertility has sky-rocketed.

Heart-broken, some couples turn to the next best thing: proxies. AI robot children to raise as their own.

It’s a luxury reserved for those who can afford it, naturally.

A company in Korea is happy to build, pack, and ship a proxy to anyone with the cash to make it happen. And an ambitious software engineer with ideas of his own is about to get involved.

Bill and Suelynn are a couple who normally wouldn’t be able to afford a proxy. Bill is desperate for children of their own, while Suelynn’s test results are a continual reminder that they will never have them.

She’s unwilling to continue trying for biological children but after seeing the joy that a proxy has brought to her friend, she’s more convinced than ever that a proxy would bring so much to their lives.

Browsing online, Bill and Suelynn come across a drastically discounted proxy, take the leap, and order a daughter of their very own.

As with human children, their daughter Jesse is full of surprises. I hope Bill and Suelynn know what they are getting into.

I am very excited for this series.

It’s off to a strong start with a very clear depiction of the world, the crisis, and the bizarre normality that offsets it. I’m looking froward to how it explores the questions it’s already teasing. What does it mean to be a parent? How do you raise a child–difficult enough–while also navigating the ethical minefield of artificial intelligence?

At the heart of it all, what makes us human?