The Whisper War #1
The Whisper War is Marc Guggenheim’s newest comic series, a five-issue sci-fi thriller launching February 10, 2026, through Amazon’s Comixology Originals. And right out of the gate, the premise is absolutely killer: imagine a world where an entire civilization has collective amnesia about a devastating civil war that wiped out a third of the population. Nobody remembers what they were fighting for. Nobody knows who won. The past has been completely erased from everyone’s minds.
Until people start whispering about it. And then someone gets murdered.
The story centers on Axel Jindari, a former cop dragged out of retirement to investigate a murder in the capital city of Apperax. There’s no forensics, no suspects, no theories – just his gut instinct and this nagging feeling that he’s done all this before. Working alongside Officer Seeva Dessin, what starts as a straightforward murder investigation quickly unravels into something that could rewrite history itself. Or, you know, reveal the history that got erased in the first place.
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THE WHISPER WAR #1
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Sedat Oezgen
Colorist: Carlos Cabrera
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: Comixology (February 10, 2026)
A Different Kind of Creative Process
What makes The Whisper War particularly interesting is how Guggenheim approached it. For the first time in his comics career, he wrote specifically for an artist – in this case, German artist Sedat Oezgen, whose portfolio includes work on Savage Sword of Conan and projects for IDW, Valiant, Image, and Dynamite Entertainment. Guggenheim actually went through Oezgen’s body of work and tailored the story to play to his strengths, building the narrative around the kinds of images and concepts Oezgen excels at drawing.
That’s a pretty fascinating reversal of the usual comics creation process, and it speaks to Guggenheim’s willingness to experiment with his creative approach. The team is rounded out by colorist Carlos Cabrera, letterer Dave Sharpe, and designer Travis Escarfullery, so we’re looking at some serious talent across the board.
Guggenheim’s Post-Arrowverse Era
It’s worth noting where Guggenheim is at in his career right now. After spending nearly a decade building the Arrowverse – co-creating Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Vixen, and serving as showrunner through most of their runs – he’s been candid about feeling like Hollywood didn’t quite appreciate what he accomplished. When DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran assembled their writers room for the new DCU reboot, Guggenheim wasn’t invited. He wrote in his newsletter that it felt like he’d “wasted his time” career-wise, noting that despite all those years of work, the Arrowverse hadn’t led to other opportunities.
But here’s the thing: rather than getting bitter, Guggenheim’s been channeling that creative energy into new projects. His Comixology Originals series The Adventures of Ulysses Monarch – a futuristic adventure about an archaeologist hunting for artifacts from our present day in the year 3026 – launched in 2025 to strong reception. (It’s basically Indiana Jones, except the “ancient civilization” being excavated is ours, which is a brilliant concept.) He’s also got upcoming Star Wars projects for Marvel, including Jar Jar and Jedi Knights Vol. 2.
The guy’s staying busy, and more importantly, he’s creating the kind of original, provocative work that doesn’t need corporate universe-building to succeed.
What to Expect from The Whisper War
What’s cool about The Whisper War is that it represents Guggenheim doing what he does best: taking a high-concept premise and grounding it in human drama. Whether it was Oliver Queen’s journey from playboy to vigilante hero, or a future archaeologist treating our iPhones like precious relics, Guggenheim’s work succeeds when it balances big ideas with characters you actually care about.
The setup here – a murder mystery that could unravel an entire society’s forgotten past – has serious potential. It’s the kind of story that asks uncomfortable questions about how we remember history, who gets to control the narrative, and what happens when the truth refuses to stay buried. And let’s face it, in our current era of contested histories and information wars, those themes hit pretty hard.
Plus, there’s something inherently creepy about the whole “nobody remembers the war” angle. It’s like if you woke up tomorrow and nobody could remember 9/11 or World War II or the pandemic – except people are starting to whisper about shadows of memories they can’t quite grasp. That’s nightmare fuel right there.
Based on the premise alone, The Whisper War looks like it’s tackling some heavy themes – memory, truth, the way societies construct narratives about their past. There’s something genuinely unsettling about the idea of an entire planet forgetting a war that killed millions of people, especially when you start wondering why everyone forgot. Was it natural? Manufactured? And what happens when the truth starts leaking out in whispers?
The murder mystery framework gives Guggenheim a solid structure to explore these bigger questions without getting too philosophical. Having a grounded detective story at the center means readers have someone to follow through this weird, amnesia-stricken world, and the noir-ish setup – retired cop, one last case, everything he knows is wrong – feels like familiar territory that Guggenheim can twist in unexpected directions.
Getting Your Hands on It
The Whisper War #1 drops digitally on February 10, 2026, through Comixology Originals. If you’re already subscribed to Kindle Unlimited or Comixology Unlimited, you can read it at no extra cost, which is pretty sweet. Otherwise, it’ll be available for purchase on Amazon’s Comixology platform.
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