Mysterious, planet-sized robots. Need I say more?
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dustin Nguyen
What they say:
The lives of a washed up, revolutionary roboticist and a young robot boy become entangled in the aftermath of an attack on the United Galactic Council by a horde of mysterious, planet-sized robots.
Content: (Please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers.)
I must, yet again, hand it to Jeff Lemire. The man is foremost in my mind when it comes to versatile and prolific writers that can move back and forth between genre, style and publisher. He’s come quite a way from his work on Essex County, a series about small town life in rural Ontario, Canada (which is excellent, by the way,) to this, a book set in a far-future galactic civilization and involves planet sized robots and roving space pirates. He’s a good one, this Jeff Lemire. Him and his artist buddy.
But yeah, I’m sure you’d like to hear about these planet-sized robots. As mentioned, Descender takes places in the United Galactic Council, a far future Earth empire that spans the galaxy. Things are apparently going well for the plucky little UGC until a group of massive, un-identifiable and globe-proportioned robots dubbed “Harvesters” appear. They obliterate most of the nine core planet’s populations, then mysteriously disappear. The Harvesters having spared the lives of all the non-organic life in the system (see: Robots,) the survivors of the attacks get suspicious, and a wave of anti-robot sentiment sweeps the empire, leaving most of society a tense, space-pirate plagued mess.
This is where Tim comes in. Tim, a robot boy, is the last of his model and the only survivor of a gas explosion on a very remote mining colony. He wakes up ten years post explosion, jacks into the UGC’s mainframe and un-wittingly alerts them to his position. After discovering that there is some type of connection between the Tim line of bots and the Harvesters, the UGC makes a beeline for Tim with Dr. Jin Quon, a washed up and formerly revolutionary roboticist and creator of the Tim model of robots, in tow. And all these elements set the stage for this space opera to really get going.
This is a thick first issue, and I’ve got that first issue infatuation going on. Most of what’s here, as it is in all first issues, is exposition. The measure of quality for a number one is how deftly the writer and artist team manages to weave through their expository duties without chunky info dump or on the nose dialogue. A trial made all the more difficult when dealing with wholly new sci-fi and fantasy worlds.
I’m happy to report that, for the most part, Lemire handles these rigors extremely well. There are a few tinny lines, but overall it’s a smooth ride throughout. The characters are intriguing, with hints of strong conflict lying ahead, and the world is robust and well realized. And, of course, the core mystery of the whole thing is intensely alluring: What the hell are those awesome, humungous robots and where the hell did they come from? The first issue did its job of hooking me with aplomb, hence the infatuation.
It’s interesting as well that Lemire, an artist who works primarily in watercolors, teamed up with another watercolor savant for this series, Dustin Nguyen. And as much as I love Lemire’s stuff, I think Nguyen’s squeezes it out for me. His style is beautifully expressive, with more attention to detail and background, as well as a gorgeously implemented palette of light greens, blues and pinks that contrast strikingly with the deep void of space and other sci-fi backdrops. It takes a real talent to make sequential artwork work in watercolor (at least for me anyways,) and not become distracting, and Nguyen handily pulls it off.
The physical issue itself is worth mentioning too, and is a trend at Image comics recently that I absolutely adore. It’s a longer issue on a higher-quality paper-stock, with no ads in the book proper, and even comes with some little extras like concept art in the back, which is rare for a floppy. All while remaining the standard price of $2.99. It’s a small thing, really, but I appreciate it and would love it if more publishers adopted the same practice.
In summary:
In closing, both Lemire and Image deliver another promising series. One that I can whole-heartedly recommend you get in on the ground floor of, sci-fi buff or not.
Grade: A
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Image Comics
Release Date: March 4th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
