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Low, Vol. 1: Almost the Apocalypse
You could describe the world of Rick Remender’s Low, out now in a new a paperback collection, as pre-apocalyptic. Billions of years in the future, the sun has begun its next phase: the expansion into a red giant that will eventually swallow the Earth and much of the solar system. For tens of thousands of years, our planet’s surface has been hot, irradiated, and generally unlivable, so humanity has taken refuge in a few dwindling colony cities deep beneath the ocean while robot probes search for habitable alien worlds. Salus is one of the last two cities capable of supporting life, although pirate scavengers and monstrous sea creatures plumb the depths and challenge the hunters who leave the relative safety of the city to bring back food. Still, the ultimate, literal (and existential) end of mankind is only a matter of time.
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The Caine family, lead by hunter Johl and his wife Stel, manage admirably, until tragedy strikes. Stel is a scientist searching, perhaps fruitlessly, for signals from probes that have been silent for centuries. She’s literally the last person holding out any hope of finding a world away from Earth, and she’s frequently an object of derision for her unbridled optimism. The whole book is framed, in part, as a paean to the power of positive thinking. Which, okay, sounds terrible. Sci-fi guy Rick Remender (Black Science, Fear Agent) discusses his struggles with constant, crushing pessimism (I feel you, Rick), and the ways in which therapy has helped him shape a better life by embracing a more positive attitude.
This is risky territory for a writer, but it works well enough, in that these characters are absolutely put through the wringer. Mankind’s fate is all but sealed, and our leads suffer many and varied tragedies and torments from very early in the story. Given that this new book only collects the first six issues of an ongoing series, I’m sure that there are more indignities to come. So, Stel’s hope in the face of overwhelming loss (not to mention the forthcoming End of All Things) is by turns poignant and ridiculous, but ultimately kind of inspiring. If there’s a hope in this future hell, she’ll find it.
Remender has teamed with his Last Days of American Crime collaborator Greg Tocchini, and the result is a mixed-media drawn and painted work with a palette that tends toward the red. The color scheme and art are inseparable from story; it’s a genuine collaboration between writer and artist, and I can’t imagine Remender’s tale working nearly as well without Tocchini’s vision of a future that looks nothing so much like bit of the ancient Roman Empire landed on Krypton. Underwater. And with hybrid technology that is simultaneously highly advanced and well past its prime. Remender and Tocchini’s whole world is like that: one where scientific wonders have fallen into decadence and decay. The visual nods to the ancient Romans aren’t an accident: this is a society that’s on its last legs, and most people are content to ride out the end of the world with drugs and sex. Happiness is a lost cause, but we’ll settle for comfortably numb. Stel’s refusal to give in to despair makes her an incredibly powerful protagonist.