When you're done reading, you can view the comic by clicking on this link.
Utopia Next is a free science-fiction webcomic authored solely by Sadi Khan. Work began on it in 2015 but it wasn't first published until May 2nd, 2018, at which point the first six issues were simultaneously published. Issues were then slated to be published at one per week and this continues to be the current schedule.
Initially set in 2118, The lead character of the comic is Dawn Halloran, an investigator at a division of the FBI known as the Department of Internal Security. The comic runs on a continuous story that has regular timestamps to denote precisely when in time something is going on and it follows her day to day life as she deals with various challenges both to do with her job and her personal life. Overall the tone of the comic is that of a continually developing adventure where things aren't always what they seem to be. The name "Utopia Next" refers to how the world is seen by most as approaching an ideal society, but as is disclosed in the first issue, things are not as simple as most people believe.
One of the key points of the comic is that it incorporates technological advancements that are either newly in use or in currently development in our own world and time; as such, Utopia Next is partly an exposition on future our own future society. Additionally, most comic issues have a "data transmission" attached to them that explains exactly what technology was used in that issue if it was the first time it showed up; in this way the reader is always aware of it. Future social issues are also used as topics, some of which are present in our own time.
Utopia Next contains examples of:
- Augmented Reality: This is now the default communication and interface in use.
- Brain/Computer Interface: Dawn's boss has an implanted one, but Dawn seems to be averse to the idea herself.
- Cloak and Dagger: Being an organization explicitly intended to counter high-tech threats, it's more "James Bond" than routine investigations.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: Officially, DIS is a subset of the FBI that processes online data. In reality, it's a black-level special ops outfit primarily intended to seize and dismantle high-tech threats.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The Department of Internal Security doesn't actually exist. Yet, anyway.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: Actually 25, by 2118 the comic posits that indefinite lifespan of all citizens has been achieved via regular medical maintenance.
