Numbers 36&37- Symmetry (Hawkins + Ienko) & Ascender (Lemire + Nguyen)

This one was worth what I paid for it.

The artwork by Raffaele Ienco is excellent.  There are some beautiful page designs going on, even if there's nothing groundbreaking or experimental.  It all looks great (apart from the wolves which don't seem to be in proportion to any wolf I've ever seen in photos).

The story is not so good.  It starts off interestingly enough.  A future Utopia where everyone has an AI implant in utero which is their lifetime companion, all citizens choose their gender and name at age 13, ao diversity is certainly encouraged in most facets of life.  But all races are kept segregated because apparently this will cause issues? No one finds out about people with different skin tones until they become an elder at age 50... In a society where it's stated explicitly that longevity is normal, why are elders as young as 50, and why do they look 70 in the pictures?

There are too many deep flaws in the narrative for this story to work, It's written across two timelines, the current and 5 years ahead, but I don't think Hawkins has the skill to pull off the multi-stranded storytelling and it's frankly a little bit confusing. 

I know he's aiming at an anti-racism plotline, but the way it's written, with all the gender identity being celebrated, and sexism no longer existing, making race the issue that could break the Utopia is itself a pretty racist concept.    

Apologies to anyone that liked this series, but I thought this volume missed the mark by a huge distance.

And as an antidote to that volume, here is volume one of the follow up to Descender. 

Back in the dependable writing skills of Jeff Lemire, and the distinctive artwork of Dustin Nguyen. 

It's all change in the galaxy since the events of the Descender finale. Ten years have passed and now magic rules in the place of science.

Andy, one of the survivors of the first series, lives with his daughter Mila in seclusion from the city nearby.  They have refused to worship Mother- a powerful vampire type creature who has assumed control. When Mila finds a familiar piece of robot tech, a chain of events is set in motion which could change the galaxy yet again.

Lemire manages to weave in and out of different timestreams without making anything confusing. Any doubts about the viability of the changes in such a short timespan are washed away by the flashbacks.

Throw in some unexpected character deaths and some great new characters including some pretty scary villains, and we have a great start to the series.  

Volume 2 is on my shopping list today.