The basic premise is that as the Earth is ravaged by a disease causing almost 7 billion deaths, a stop-gap measure is taken to download the minds of the dying into a massive computer-simulated world, named Arcadia (presumably a nod to the painting, Et in Arcadia ego, and Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles), that ostensibly models the real world. The end result is an impeccably rendered comic with an intriguing and slowly burgeoning story.Īrcadia offers an interesting play on traditional post-modern themes. Nguyen uses watercolors to create images that are subtly complex, vacillating between airy and open spaces that capture the isolation of space and hectic and cluttered to emphasize the post- Harvester chaos of the Council planets. Of course, this series cannot be discussed without mentioning Dustin Nguyen’s art, which is simply fantastic. Despite that Tim-21 is a robot, Lemire has done a nice job of making him very human: Tim-21 much loves the family with which he had lived, considered the matriarch his mother, and has a close bond with a robot “dog” that is his own. Lemire’s writing so far has been consistently spot-on, and his use of a child-robot such as Tim-21 adds a nice element, as the character necessarily has certain dependencies and immaturities that lend well to exploring the broader themes in the book. Issue #3 reads like a direction post for the series, portending that while the series intends to reflect on the nature of humanity and its relationship with the world constructed around it, Descender will be delving into even deeper thematic territory, although, at this point, we are only peeking through the keyhole of what Lemire has in store, and where he intends to take us is not entirely clear. While he undergoes repair, Tim-21’s mind wanders to something that can only be described as robot limbo, as he becomes somehow becomes connected with the “souls” of the robots that were culled years before. Issue #3 opens with Tim-21 in near-total system failure after sustaining a grievous injury from a group of scavengers who attempted to harvest him for parts. Tim-21 wakes from lengthy stasis only to find himself alone, his family and the rest of his colony mysteriously dead, and he is completely unaware of the Harvesters and the destruction of the robots. It is against this background that we are introduced to Tim-21, a robot boy with advanced AI who has been stranded on a colony on a remote world years. The resulting world is a bleak version of the prior utopia, that includes, maybe most aptly for the story, a severe backlash against the robot population of the planets: where robots, imbued with advanced AI, had previously been a part of daily life and, often, family members and companions, they were quickly culled. Lemire’s strengths have always best veered towards the strange and unusual, and typically manifest best in more traditional sci-fi one of his most under-appreciated works is his 2013 mini-series Trillium, which played with concepts of time travel and aliens.ĭescender feels much like a thematic extension of Trillium, as it utilizes traditional science fiction themes to craft a character-driven story aimed at forcing the reader to reflect upon himself and the world in which he exists in this way, the story is very much classic Bradbury or Asimov. The story takes place after an attack on the alliance of planets, known as United Galactic Council, by massive and mysterious robots – the Harvesters – that efficiently decimate the vast majority of each planet’s population. Over the past 10 years, Jeff Lemire has carved out a nice career for himself, both through his work through on DC’s more established characters and, maybe even more notably, through his independent and Vertigo titles such as Sweet Tooth. Kennedy takes a look at a couple of this week’s titles from Image, as well as Boom! Studios‘ new series Arcadia.
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