Art style in Vanishing Point second issue remind me of The Flintstones. I was ready to enjoy a story in similar vibe. A light hearted, comedic story about a family who lives in a sky home. Basically a Flintstones in the sky story. How wrong I was. This one is far from a lighthearted cartoon.
After its plot twist, I thought this story is similar to the movie Elysium (2013) where some people live in a huge space station, living a utopian life while commoners suffer on Earth in poor conditions. But after completing the story, I read it again with the knowledge of the twist. It revealed many tiny details that I had missed on my first read-through. Those details made me realize that this story has a deeper political message rather than showing a wealth disparity in the world.
In a glance you would think that the Tomorrow family is the main focal point of the plot. But actually Cosmo Warner is the protagonist in this story. In one reality he is a mysterious little kid with an eye patch. In another reality he is a dying man on his death bed.
Two timelines – two realities
Both realities show different versions of the year 2100 of the Earth. In the Tomorrow Family’s reality people live in a futuristic utopia. They live in levitating homes and travel by personal jetpacks or flying cars. In their world even an idiot can lives a happy life. But this heaven-like world is a mere imagination inside the dying Cosmo Warner’s head. It’s his last resort of happiness before his brain gives out from a lack of oxygen. In reality, Earth in 2100 CE looks like a dystopian nightmare.
What’s wrong with Cosmo Warner’s world
Looks like everything went wrong in that timeline for common people. According to the story, Cosmo Warner was not a poor person. He was living in a nice middleclass domicile. But that nice middleclass shack according to 2100’s standards, looks like a slum house in our world. Entire neighborhood looks like a giant slum. If that’s the living condition of a middleclass citizen, I’m afraid to imagine how poor and homeless people live like. Maybe there are no poor people in the year 2100. Not because the world had eradicated the homelessness, but a poor person cannot survive in this world.
The Ultimate Subscription – subscribe for oxygen
Every person in 2100’s is wearing an oxygen tank. They are not breathing normal air. And all of these life support systems have the Air Apparent logo on them. Cosmo Warner ran out of oxygen and died because he had not renewed his oxygen subscription. That’s the ultimate subscription plan. Subscribe to breathe. So in 2100’s a private company has commercialized the right to breathe.
In today’s world companies are pushing for subscription base models for their products. Many companies are looking for ways to rent you their products instead of handing over the absolute ownership. And some companies are fighting tooth and nail to take away their consumers’ right to repair.
Inhospitable environment
In Cosmo’s time, the Earth’s atmosphere has become lethal to humans to breathe in. What led to this outcome is not mentioned in the story. Cosmo says that he lost his sister to a garbage fire. So pollution must be rampant in his time.
This remind me a news story from few years back. In some parts of India, the smog got out of hand that people had to buy oxygen bottles to breathe. It looks like fiction is not far from reality.
Capitalism is the culprit
Judging from the clues in utopian version of the 2100. I think the culprit is the capitalism. Not everyone is suffering in Cosmo’s world. You can see the huge, futuristic-looking Air Apparent building looming over a sea of shacks. Air Apparent drones are swarming in the area. So the wealth is flowing in one way but not trickling back to the society.
2100 in an alternate universe.
I don’t know why Cosmo gave up on his oxygen subscription. Maybe it is not the world he dreamt to live in. From his last thoughts we can glimpse into his idea of an ideal world. He is a fan of The Tomorrow Family cartoon. He has a collector’s box set of CDs to prove that. His dying brain has put his mind inside The Tomorrow Family’s world to give him some peace in his last moments. There is a political undertone in this cartoon. Maybe that’s why Cosmo likes it this much, or the political undertone may have been inserted from Cosmo’s mind into the cartoon world.
Meaning of the Pictures of Che Guevara and Bernie Sanders
There are two framed pictures of Che Guevara and Bernie Sanders on the wall of Tomorrow family home. I immediately recognized Che Guevara’s picture because it’s an iconic image. But it took me a while to figure out the identity of the old man who is wearing a face mask and mittens. But after knowing both of their identities, it wasn’t hard to figure out the political meaning behind their pictures. I am not educated in political science, so my conclusions could be wrong. Here are my thoughts about the meaning of the pictures. Both Che Guevara and Bernie Sanders do not agree with the current capitalist system. Che Guevara wanted to use socialism to create a communist society. Bernie Sanders advocates for implementing socialist aspects into a capitalist framework and broaden social safety nets. There are notable social safety nets in the Tomorrow Family’s world.
Air Apparent cannot fire people. Unions are strong
Jim Tomorrow is not the sharpest tool in the shed. His boss would have fired him if he could. But he can’t fire people because of union rules. In his displeasure, the boss rants about how the world used to be a place for winners, but now any idiot can survive in this 2100’s society.
Company car
Jim is not a star employee in the company, but he still has a company issued car to go to work. I don’t think traveling is a big issue in this society because everyone and their dogs have their own personal jetpacks.
Universal Basic Income
Jim’s wife Linda Tomorrow is not doing great at the moment. She is losing customers from her space traveling agency. She is bit worried but not terrified of going broke because that’s not going to happen to the people in this society. They have a Universal Basic Income. Linda has the luxury of even closing down her business until she figures out a new business strategy.
Robot workers
They have robots which are capable of doing basic household works. Tomorrow family has a snarky one in their home who cooks for them. Also their school’s lunch lady is a robot who dispenses free breakfast for students.
Robot workers are tied to the Universal Basic Income. According to some projections Artificial Intelligence and automations are going to affect 300 millions of jobs by 2030. That’s without all-purpose robots like what we see in the comic. With such robots, Billions of jobs would be affected. There are discussions to implement some kind of a safety net to protect people who are going to lose their jobs. Universal Basic Income is one of the proposed solutions to address the issue.
In-house med bay
They have sci-fi med bays in their homes. Linda Tomorrow takes Cosmo to their med bay to cure his eye. Cosmo gets his sight back in his blind eye. So their Med-Treatment instruments are capable of performing reconstructing procedures within minutes. This is why I initially thought that this comic is similar to the movie Elysium, because Elysium’s plot revolves around less fortunate people struggling to get into rich people’s med-bay’s to cure their illnesses. Jim Tomorrow’s boss rants about that you can’t even kill a fool by giving them a jetpack in this world. Maybe he meant it literally because everyone has med-bays at their homes, which are capable of putting them back together.
Free nutrient dense breakfast
Kids in Tomorrow’s world get a nutrient dense breakfast from their school cafeteria for free. Actually, this is not an unrealistic or futuristic thing. Many countries are already doing this. When I was a kid, we did not get free food from our schools. But now, there is a program in my country to provide a free nutritious breakfast for school kids.
Political undertone
It’s not hard to understand Cosmo Warner’s situation. He is living in an extreme capitalist society where you can’t even breathe without paying for oxygen. In his world, profit matters more than basic human needs. No wonder he is dreaming for a world where wealth is being redistributed to the society to create safety nets so that every person could live a comfortable life.
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