Descender #13
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Art, Colours, Cover: Dustin Nguyen
Lettering: Steve Wands
In Descender #12 we found out why child-robot TIM-22 hates humankind so much: he was a gift for an elderly man who didn’t want him and didn’t treat him well, then was beaten up by some children and accidentally killed a man.
Then we saw the same TIM-22 fighting his “brother” TIM-21, who (he thinks) has quickly become the favourite of Prius, the leader of the robotic resistance movement that TIM-22 treats like a father. The point is that TIM-21 seems to hide in his programming the secret to rebuild the Harvesters, the gigantic robots that, ten years ago, destroyed a big chunk of humankind.
The fight is not over, but issue #13 opens with another flashback to the days of the Harvesters; this time we meet Telsa as a child. Telsa is the commander of the ship that rescued TIM-21 and Dr. Quon from an early death (or, for the robot, deactivation). After the Harvesters attacked, we see Telsa arguing with her mother – but a Harvester suddenly kills the woman. General Nagoki – Telsa’s father – who we know is the leader of the UGC, the organisation that runs the entire galaxy, rescues the child.
The best feature in Descender is, as we regularly mention, Dustin Nguyen’s art – or rather, his watercolours. Yes, everything in this series is a watercolour. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the story is not so interesting: Jeff Lemire created a complex series of characters, and now that we are finding out about their background we can appreciate even more their complexity.
To conclude, Descender is a very fine series whose main strengths are the characters… and the art. Admittedly this new issue doesn’t exactly inject pace in the story (at least until its final pages), but it helps us get to know better an already interesting character. Still, one to buy!
Descender #13
Pros
- The art!
- Great characters
Cons
- Flashback issue
- Little story advancement
- Previous issue's cliffhanger still suspended