Catrin’s fall deepens.
Creative Staff:
Story: Zac Thompson
Art: Jen Hickman
Colors: Jen Hickman
Letterer: Simon Bowland
What They Say:
Finally putting the shards of her life back together, Catrin finds a new reason to live. A new set of eyes occupy her attention, and the obsession grows, love blooms. It’s not a rebound if you found the one you were truly made to love.
A month // of long days/
// Finding the one you lost
In her / you chase away
/ tell truth // pay a cost
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With quite a few Zac Thompson books under my belt over the last couple of years with his run at AfterShock, I’ve certainly gotten a good handle on his style and enjoy his works overall. Lonely Receiver is something that feels like it’s pushing a bit deeper and harder in a way that resonates and at times worries me as I watch Catrin’s fall here. What makes it even “worse” in a way is that Jen Hickman continues to deliver some strikingly beautiful artwork. Here, we see more of how Catrin is making her way through life and fooling herself and there’s an exquisite design to it at times with the visuals, such as her expressive nature when thinking about Hazel, that deepens the emotions that Thompson has put to the dialogue.
With Catrin and Hazel having really connected on the dance floor, Catrin is now convinced that Hazel is just Rhion in a somewhat different form and has forgotten or buried who she really is in herself. There’s an intensity to Catrin in trying to get closer to Hazel and we see that with the struggle she has initially just in texting her, taking days to really connect there and get underway, and then actually stalking her in order to randomly bump into her at some other club and dance the night away. Hazel, for her part, appears to be completely oblivious to all of this that’s going on. Catrin plays with her words kind of carefully at times, sometimes hinting at the changes and mods that she’s made to herself, but mostly trying to come across as normal as she can so they can keep seeing each other and she gets this euphoria from being close to her.
When the two do finally get to have a true and proper date, the giddiness we get out of Catrin is almost infectious. She’s intent on telling Hazel everything, believing that she’d get mods right away so they can be together, and it really highlights just how far down the delusion that Catrin has gone in order to cope with the loss of Rhion. Hazel’s not a Rhion replacement but Rhion who forgot who she is and that she can bring her back to who she is meant to be. Which is why it’s not a surprise that as Hazel really starts to understand what’s going on she really freaks out. There are serious social issues that exist between those like Catrin who took an AI like Rhion and those who live presumably what’s called more naturally, and watching that unfold and how badly it all goes is heartrending because you don’t want that for Catrin but at the same time it’s exactly what would happen to someone as far gone as this.
In Summary:
Depending on how badly relationships have gone in your own life, you’ll get different things out of a series like this. I’ve had some rough breakups and endings that already made the first issue a hell of a rough read and the events here only serve to reinforce my own self-critiques of how I acted a long time ago. There’s a lot to like in watching how this unfolds with Catrin doing so much to deceive herself and the artwork elevates it to a whole other level. It’s hauntingly beautiful and disturbing in far too many scenes even though those scenes are really just simple things, such as clubbing and dinner. But with the character layer here that we understand it takes on so much more meaning.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: AfterShock Comics | ComiXology | Kindle
Release Date: September November 4th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99