Is Driller truly a killer?
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dustin Nguyen
Letterer: Steve Wands
What They Say:
“SINGULARITIES” comes to its shocking conclusion. The secret sins of one of our main cast members are revealed, and the effects will shatter allegiances and change the world of Descender forever!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With several issues of the Singularities arc behind us so far and this one bringing it – and book three – to a close, I find myself having enjoyed it immensely. While the connections to the present were either light or strong depending on the need of the story, I loved digging into these characters pasts amid the sprawling backdrop of what’s been going on the past ten plus years in this world that Lemire and Nguyen have created. And I absolutely adored the dog installment for what it brought to light, so there were no low points for me. After giving Effie her due the last time around that certainly made her a more engaging character, this finally installment works with Driller. If the dog was a hard character to deal with, Driller may be the same. At first.
This one goes back some seventeen years prior to when the first events hit on the moon where the story initially picked up with TIM-21 as we see how Driller and others were top of the line machines at the time to deal with excavations and all that was needed to get the mines underway. But even in a galactic sense time waits for no one and it only took a few years before far more advanced machines were sent and Driller, along with Scoops, are sent to work with Henry Tusk in an out of the way mine as nobody likes working with him. Tusk is a rough around the edges character to say the least and he views these two robbies as just tools and works them thusly. It’s a familiar story to be sure and you can see easy historical parallels brought into it, but it works well to expose us to a side of Driller that we hadn’t seen before.
Now, I like Driller because he’s different from the rest of the cast and has felt like his purpose will be larger and intriguing as the series rolls on. Following him and Scoops here over a six year period of working for Tusk and the conversations that the two robbies have is fascinating. Scoops draws him out as he talks about a range of ideas and the rumors of a free robots society out there somewhere, and Driller is sticking to the company line to some degree because he only knows drilling. Scoops, however, is thinking there’s more to existence and wants to try and find out someday. When it brings us to the main event itself with the moon being evacuated, and Tusk being the ass that he is, it takes its darker turn and reveals more clearly his killer side as he’s pushed in hard ways. It’s not a pleasant scene but it is one that really brings out this side of what he’s capable of in terms of being a feeling and sentient robot.
In Summary:
Descender closes out this round of background stories with another difficult character that, while not deep or rich in what we learn, provides more understanding of him and the larger world that the story exists in. Lemire makes him interesting and fun in his own gruff way and I love the banter and humor between him and Scoops. Nguyen’s style continues to impress the hell out of me with how this looks and working with the mines and mostly robots here just hits a certain sweet spot in otherworldiness. Part of me wishes we’d just get a portfolio of science fiction oriented landscapes, cities, stations, and so forth from him like we used to in the 70’s. So much neat stuff here that inspires the imagination.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Image Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 26th, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
