Ascender #1 is published by Image Comics. It is written by Jeff Lemire with art by Dustin Nguyen.
If you haven’t reader Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s amazing series, Descender, I highly recommend it because 1. It’s amazing, but mostly 2. It’s the prequel to this story so things will probably mean a little bit more, however, this debut issue does a good job of not making you feel like you’re missing anything. The focus is on a new main character named Mila, as opposed to Tim 21 from the Descender series and these two characters couldn’t be more different.
Mila is a human female while Tim 21 was a male android, and while they were close in age, Mila wants to get away from home and see the universe, but all Tim 21 wanted to do was find his family and feel home again. Things didn’t work out that way though. As you’ll see immediately, the universe has gone to hell. You may not know the backstory of how it well to hell, or maybe you do, but you don’t need to, because you take one look at Dustin Nguyen’s beautiful, barely civilized world where “Mother” rules over everyone and you know this isn’t a pleasant world to live in. My god, it’s so pretty though. I am a big fan of Dustin Nguyen’s watercolor-esque art and it makes even a bleak dungeon gorgeous, yet still somehow creepy.
Jeff Lemire gives us a new story but manages to pay homages to Descender, again, without making it overwhelming to new readers. It taunts you to read its predecessor, but doesn’t make you feel left in the dust for not having to yet. I don’t know how long that will last though, so you should probably do that sooner rather than later. I already like Mila and this new villain of Mother seems like she is going to be exceptionally detestable. I can’t wait.
I’m also immediately curious about this new world without technology and this magic that seems to have sprouted from it. How does it all connect? What do magic and technology have to do with each other? Did magic manifest in the absence of technology? Is technology the reason we don’t have magic in the real world? I don’t know which one I would more prefer, honestly. And in the world Jeff Lemire has created, it seems technology and magic both proved to incite greed and suffering among humanity. I’m so excited to see where everything goes. Though, I will say I’m disappointed that one of my favorite characters seems to have died between the events of Descender and the beginning of Ascender.
OVERALL SCORE: 9 / 10
It’s been almost a full year since the ending of Descender, but Ascender doesn’t miss a beat in bringing us back into things. It’s definitely a series you don’t want to miss. So make sure you pick up Ascender #1 from your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
