Descender #3, by Jeff Lemire (writer), Dustin Nguyen
(illustrator), Steve Wands (letterer and designer) – Gotta love the light pink
background for an image of a child android lying dead on the ground. It’s like
his transmission fluid stained the floor.
TIM’s body is still on Dirishu, but his mind has landed
somewhere else. A place full of other robots that were destroyed in the past
(all as a result of the fear and hatred of humans after the Harvesters’
attacks, so far as we know). They expect TIM to find them and save them,
somehow, though he doesn’t receive any explanation as to how to do either.
While all that had been happening a shuttle from the UGC had arrived, carrying
a Captain Telsa and her subordinate, Tullis. And the other passenger is Dr.
Quon, the man who created TIM, looking much the worse for wear compared to
TIM’s memories of him last issue. They find TIM, after fending off Driller, and
Dr. Quon is able to fix TIM enough to revive him. Thus, TIM didn’t learn
everything he needed to. He also didn’t learn he probably shouldn’t talk about
strange places full of damaged, desperate robots he visited in his dreams. I
have a feeling that’s something the UGC is going to be very concerned about.
Personally, my hunch is the minds of the robots are all in the old servers Quon
mentioned, forgotten in some dusty corner.
I like the look of the place TIM visited. Not in the sense
it looks like a happy place, but it’s kind of cool. The ambient red glow that
doesn’t seem to come from anywhere in particular. A landscape that looks mostly
like a rocky canyon, not all that different from what you’d find out west, but
there are all those cables/veins/wires running across the surface. It makes
things creepier, if a seemingly deserted wasteland that is abruptly full of
robots wasn’t creepy enough. It gives that implication that they’re moving
within a massive, living organism, we’re just too close to grasp the size of
it. Which can be unnerving, that sense you’re dealing with something on a scale
you can’t comprehend. It makes one feel pretty small, and a bit lost.
Also, and I don’t know why, but the close-up on Telsa’s face
in panel 5 on page 7 keeps grabbing my attention. Maybe because of how none of
the other panels get that close. We drift around the conversation up to that
point, then zoom in at the moment she makes her threat and/or accusation.
Nguyen’s color choices for her play a role. The red of her hair really sets off
that pale blue of her skin, but it’s the fact her eyes are black, with the
pupils a barely visible lighter shade. It’s hard to read those, to see what she’s
feeling as she talks, and the set of her mouth doesn’t give much away, either.
There’s no thin smile like in the second panel, suggesting it’s gallows humor,
or that she’s enjoying scaring him. But there’s no visible anger. From all
appearances, she’s just stating a fact, laying things out for him. Which makes
Quon’s obviously frightened and surprised reaction all the more effective right
on the other side of that panel border.
Ms. Marvel #15, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Takeshi
Miyazawa (art), Ian Herring (color art), Joe Carmagna (lettering) – Kamala,
that is an exceptionally bad job of hiding your costume. And Kris Anka drew
Kamran looking entirely too clean cut and wholesome.
I don’t read Inhuman, so I don’t know the deal with Lineage,
but it’s apparent enough he’s bad news. Fair enough. He wants her to join up
with him, with the usual honeyed words of great power, and not letting others
dictate what she does with them (except for him, of course). In the meantime,
she dialed Bruno, and he charges out of school to rescue her. Doesn’t exactly
work out, since he gets grabbed by a couple of Lineage’s goons the second he
hits New Attilan, and Kamala has to rescue him, after trapping Kaboom and
kicking Kamran’s ass. By turning his stupid, Gambit-ripoff power against him,
which I quite enjoyed. But hey, at least Bruno got them some transportation so
they don’t have to swim home! That counts as help, right?
I made the comment about Anka drawing Kamran looking very
presentable up above. Now that I think about it, Miyazawa has had him drifting
more into James Dean territory over the course of this arc, with the leather
jackets and hair swept up in that bad spit curl or whatever the hell you call
it. What does it say about the guy who claims humans are inferior and
different, that he can’t pick a better fashion statement than a 60+ year old
human expression of directionless rebellion? That he’s a rebel, a rebel without
a cause. Just like the boy in that popular movie. Next he’ll be telling us no
one can stop the Cobras. Or was it the Hell’s Satans?
I thought it was interesting how when Kamala accuses Kamran
of abducting her – which he did – he tries to turn it around to make it her
fault. She got in his car willingly, he says, so no one will believe she didn’t
come here willingly. It ignores the fact I’m pretty sure Bruno and her brother
both heard him offer her a ride to school, but he’s just trying to weaken her
resolve, so what does he care about facts? So he uses the same sort of
victim-blaming tactics you see people use against rape victims. Oh, you dressed
in a way that asked for it. You accepted a drink from him, a ride from her,
it’s your fault. It’s bullshit, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it, and
I highly doubt it’s a coincidence Wilson chose that dialogue, or that Kamala
refutes it. When Lineage says he had her brought in good faith for an
opportunity, Kamala doesn’t accept that, or say she made a mistake. She says
she was tricked and kidnapped, which puts the blame on Lineage and Kamran, which
is where it belongs.
Then the confrontation in the hallway between her and
Kamran, the way Miyazwa draws her with this startled, spooked expression when
he first appears behind her as this looming, dark-eyed guy with fists already
clenched. He advances, and he’s already turned his powers on, while she’s still
backing up against a wall. And what’s he talking about the whole time? How she
embarrassed him, because she wouldn’t just do what he wanted, and so he has to
hit her now. He keeps trying to make it her fault, and Kamala refuses to accept
that. She made a mistake believing he was a good guy, but just because he
fooled her, doesn’t mean she deserves any of what’s happened, and certainly
doesn’t mean she deserves to get hit. It’s only then she uses her powers,
embiggens her fists, and even then, she doesn’t go all out on him. She beats
him enough to get an opening to get away, and that’s enough. She doesn’t go
spine-breaking, Frank Miller Batman on him out of revenge. She recognizes the
situation is dangerous far beyond this idiot, poser ass who doesn’t even know
how to fight, and gets gone.
It’s a nice touch, too, that in the moments when she fights
back, the hallways shift from that cold grey and blue to a bright yellow, more
similar to the color of the lightning bolt on her costume. When Kamran tries
his Gambit move, the background shifts to a dark green and black, closer to his
colors, but back to yellow again when she turns it around on him. So, fine work
all around, creative team.
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