Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Greg Tocchini
Release Date: 29th July, 2015
The first 6-issue run of Low was lauded by reviewers here, and elsewhere, as one of the most innovative and exciting comics of last year. Is it possible that Remender and Tocchini can sustain this as the story unfolds? And is it sufficiently accessible to newcomers? The answer is a resounding yes, with what may be the best issue to date.
In the first story arc, we are introduced to the undersea world that humanity has retreated to escape our Sun’s expansion and our own inevitable demise, and we see how one mother’s determination to save her family at once goes disastrously wrong and yet provides a shard of hope for humanity. Stel loses her husband and twin daughters, and her son spirals into debauched self-loathing only to be ultimately redeemed in sacrificing himself, and freeing one of his sisters from her piratical captors and mental enslavement – only for her to destroy pirate and slaves alike in an orgy of destruction.
With issue 7 (well worth picking up, but not a requirement) dealing with the “meanwhile” of the remaining sister in a self-contained narrative, this returns to our erstwhile heroine Stel, as she questions what her children have done and her own place in the universe. If it sounds profoundly philosophical, it is: there are questions of humanity, hope, forgiveness and retribution here, but it’s never bombastic or didactic. Instead, it’s folded brilliantly into the dark twists of the narrative as Stel’s new companions – an escaped aquatically-adjusted slave and a former pirate – find themselves at inevitably loggerheads. Like any good sci-fi, it’s fundamentally about the big human questions, without letting that get in the way of proper storytelling.
The art continues to demand the reader’s attention, Tocchini delivering lush canvas upon canvas; it’s harrowing, intense and almost smothering in its vibrancy. You are absolutely captivated and feel drained afterwards – Low is not for the faint-hearted. It’s particularly well-suited, I must add, to e-reading, as the slight glow of the screen adds to the ever-present sense of the Sun’s inevitable consumption of the comic’s world.
It’s hard to remain objective about Low. Against a backdrop of phenomenal output from Image, Low manages to stand out as the absolute must-buy comic of the year.
Rating: 5/5.
The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
You can follow Sam on Twitter
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