COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Hacktivist #1 – The Power of Social Media

Hacktivist #1
Created By: Alyssa Milano
Writers: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Artist: Marcus To
Publisher: Archaia Entertainment/Boom! Studios

Social Media, that’s something that almost all of us have access to these days. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it, you’re in all, if not, most of the Social Media sites today and we could even be friends or linked through the network, Hacktivist is a book that explores the power of social media, its possibilities and how it could bring change to the world.

When I was asked what book I’d be reviewing this week, I browsed through the list what immediately caught my attention was the creator’s name of Hacktivist, Alyssa Milano. I was thinking is she the same person as the Hollywood actress? And it turns out she is. Published by Archaia Entertainment/Boom! Studios, Hacktivist has the potential of being adapted into a full length movie. I don’t know if that’s what the intentions of the creator and the writers behind Hacktivist but I believe that if it ever they do it, Hacktivist could make a good film.

Hacktivist is a story about two friends Nate Graft and Edwin Hiccox who developed the next big Social Media Networking site, YourLife. The site YourLife, according to its founders Nate and Edwin is a social media site without the restriction of someone else knowing your information or basically without Big Brother watching. Behind their site, YourLife, Nate and Edwin lives a double life as hackers under the identity “sve_Urs3lf”. Nate and Edwin hacked the government of Tunisia and helped sparked the revolution with the means of using technology and social media. This in turn did not escape the eyes of the US government who requested to use the YourLife network to engage in covert cyberstrike on the Tunisian government with full support of the United States.

Hacktivist tells a story relevant to the world we live in today. Hacktivist explores the possibility of how powerful social media can be, how it can be bring change and revolution to society. In recent years we’ve learned how social media helped social media sparked revolutions in bringing down governments and regimes and that’s what could have inspired the creation of Hacktivist. After reading the first issue Im now interested as to how the story develops as this book is only a 4 part series (which I think is a short number of issues for a story of this scope). This has been another suprising treat for me, never expected Hacktivist to be this good, it’s a good choice to include it in your pick list this week.

Rating: 9/10