The Last West is a comic-book series by Lou Iovino and Evan Young, published by Alterna Comics.
In 1945, on the day that the first atom bomb was to be tested, something went wrong. The bomb didn't go off, and the Atomic Age never began. Technological development halted. Over half a century later, the US is still locked in an endless war with Japan, and Robert Whittenheimer, the grandson of one of the scientists from the atom bomb project is still trying to figure out what went wrong. A tip leads him to a name - Stephen West, a soldier who went missing on the day of the bomb test, and thus begins a quest to jump-start scientific progress and restore things to what they should have been.
This series contains examples of:
- Alternate History: In this world, the US never used the atom bomb. Technological development halted in 1945, and America is still at war with Japan sixty years later.
- Artistic License – History: This series contends that without the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese would never have surrendered. Most historians would contest this, pointing out that Japan was already preparing to surrender to Russia before the bombs dropped.
- Forever War: In the Last West universe, the war in the Pacific has been going on for over sixty years, with no end in sight.
- For Want Of A Nail: The failure of the Jughead nuclear test led to America abandoning its quest for the atom bomb, which altered the course of the war and thus history itself.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Robert Whittenheimer has been trying for years to figure out what went wrong with his grandfather's atom bomb, believing that it is the key to ending America's technological stagnation.
