Descender #1 review
A united galaxy of over 6 million citizens in harmony with AI is met by Galactus size alien robots who aren’t exactly there to celebrate coexistence. As a reactive species, humans outlaw androids for a decade, but one somehow manages to survive, and thus the continuing struggles of androids and humans begins in Descender #1.
Image Comics describes Descender #1 as a “rip roaring and heart felt cosmic odyssey” and “a sprawling space opera”, which are very vibrant descriptions of a book that I apparently didn’t read. I wouldn’t describe Descender #1 as either of those, yet it’s obviously sci fi through and through. I’m not exactly seeing “rip roaring” or “space opera”, but what I do see is a well thought out space drama.
Jeff Lemire has written an intriguing look at the relationship of androids and humans from two very different perspectives. On one side you have one of the most brilliant human minds regarding AI, and the other, a young android now caught up in the war he never knew he was a part of. Although they seem worlds apart, they’re actually more similar than one would think. I’m surprised Lemire has enough time for all his projects, the other of which being the All-New Hawkeye (which I’m still up the air about) that coincidentally came out this week also.
I would love to struggle describing Descender #1 some more, but let’s just describe the art of Dustin Nguyen instead. Like water colors come to life, his environments are gorgeous. His characters get almost lost in it except when they’re at the forefront of each box. Each page is creatively crafted, similar to something you would see from J. H. Williams III, Marco Rudy, or Andrea Serrentino. Designs I love seeing in books now.
This review was incredibly difficult to write, Descender #1 was almost too short to form any type of opinion, you didn’t spend enough time with either character, and saying too much would spoil the entire story. Jeff Lemire has set you up for the long haul with Descender #1, I would suggest buckling up because I have no idea what’s coming next.
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