By Amanda
In the distant future when the sun’s expansion threatens human life, humans can no longer live on Earth’s surface due to radiation. They have settled in the ocean depths in large cities, hunting fish to survive and searching among the stars via probes for a new planet to call home. Low is a sci-fi new release from writer Rick Remender and artist Greg Tocchini from Image Comics.
Stel and Johl Caine are teaching their daughters to one day become hunters for the city of Salus. Stel is optimistic and believes that there is hope for a new home outside of Earth. Johl is her opposite, pessimistic, looking only as far as they can see. The first half of the issue focuses entirely on their family. The only voices we hear are theirs, and the narrow scope almost made me feel as if I was stranded along with them at the bottom of the ocean.
And yet, they are not alone.
The issue opens with a few panels of a skeletal figure emerging from a dark crevice, whose meaning does not become evident until the second half. The title splash page is dark, red and black only, and eerie. This creates enough mystery that I remained interested though the rest of this half had an overabundance of world building and character development with almost zero action. Once Stel and Johl left the safety of Salus, I tore through the pages. While such a leap in pacing would usually bother me, Remender sets the groundwork for future issues with a solid foundation of how this world operates.
Remender also introduces multiple complications to the plot that mean the reader will never be bored. Low asks us to question the implications of human development and our place as a species in this universe. Even still, Remender couches these questions relatable dynamics through a family just trying to survive.
Tocchini’s art with its many lines and less clean coloring mirrors the story perfectly. I am much more a fan of this style of art than cleaner work you’d see from the Big Two, so I might be biased. It’s similar to Sean Murphy’s work in The Wake, and I’ve enjoyed both titles immensely. He uses a lot of bright orange and red, which puts you on edge right from the start. I love the panels of Stel and Johl in their house as Stel looks at the different probes. The specs of planets or stars or probes (or all three) that splatter those two pages create a beautiful effect. Tocchini’s blog (http://gregtocchini.blogspot.com/) features a lot of work from this title, Hinterkind, and others, and is amazing to visit from a visual standpoint.
Any Remender title is going to do well, so I am probably singing to the choir. Image Comics is quickly growing its dominance over my comic to-read pile, and for all the right reasons. These comics allow the story to develop through characters rather than setting pace to hit a high note every five issues or so. I’m really excited to see where this title goes.
Stel and Johl Caine are teaching their daughters to one day become hunters for the city of Salus. Stel is optimistic and believes that there is hope for a new home outside of Earth. Johl is her opposite, pessimistic, looking only as far as they can see. The first half of the issue focuses entirely on their family. The only voices we hear are theirs, and the narrow scope almost made me feel as if I was stranded along with them at the bottom of the ocean.
And yet, they are not alone.
The issue opens with a few panels of a skeletal figure emerging from a dark crevice, whose meaning does not become evident until the second half. The title splash page is dark, red and black only, and eerie. This creates enough mystery that I remained interested though the rest of this half had an overabundance of world building and character development with almost zero action. Once Stel and Johl left the safety of Salus, I tore through the pages. While such a leap in pacing would usually bother me, Remender sets the groundwork for future issues with a solid foundation of how this world operates.
Remender also introduces multiple complications to the plot that mean the reader will never be bored. Low asks us to question the implications of human development and our place as a species in this universe. Even still, Remender couches these questions relatable dynamics through a family just trying to survive.
Tocchini’s art with its many lines and less clean coloring mirrors the story perfectly. I am much more a fan of this style of art than cleaner work you’d see from the Big Two, so I might be biased. It’s similar to Sean Murphy’s work in The Wake, and I’ve enjoyed both titles immensely. He uses a lot of bright orange and red, which puts you on edge right from the start. I love the panels of Stel and Johl in their house as Stel looks at the different probes. The specs of planets or stars or probes (or all three) that splatter those two pages create a beautiful effect. Tocchini’s blog (http://gregtocchini.blogspot.com/) features a lot of work from this title, Hinterkind, and others, and is amazing to visit from a visual standpoint.
Any Remender title is going to do well, so I am probably singing to the choir. Image Comics is quickly growing its dominance over my comic to-read pile, and for all the right reasons. These comics allow the story to develop through characters rather than setting pace to hit a high note every five issues or so. I’m really excited to see where this title goes.