This past week has been one of the busiest I’ve had in a long time. It’s all good things, I assure you, and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself, but it has wreaked havoc on my ability to sit still and dive deep into my to-read or to-watch lists. Still, I did manage to find a few hours to read and digest things, and it was time well spent because not only did I manage to check a few things off those lists, but one comic book in particular made me sit up — literally, while I was lounging on the couch — and take notice.
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Low: Looking Up With Remender & Tocchini
My unread stack of comics has been approaching ludicrous heights, so when I had time this weekend I did a little judicious pruning. One of the series I was looking forward to the most was the first five issues of Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini’s Low, from Image Comics. Low is set in the very distant future, where the sun’s expansion into a red giant has made the surface of the Earth uninhabitable for humans. What remains of the human race lives in two underwater cities that are rapidly running out of time and oxygen, and when they’re not being beset by pirates or leviathans they are basically living through gross inequality and the kind of debauchery that would make even the most decadent empires blush. Most people have given up on the search for habitable planets, except for Stel Caine, matriarch of the Caine family. One day, she finds a damaged probe that indicates there might just be a planet out there for humanity after all.
Over the past five years, Remender has quickly become one of my favourite writers in comics. My first exposure to him was in the mini-series The Last Days of American Crime, a futuristic crime story set in the last days before mind-controlling radio signals prevent people from being able to commit criminal acts. (That mini-series was also my first exposure to Tocchini’s incredible artwork, yet another reason I was excited for Low.) From that very first story I was hooked by Remender’s high-concept sci-fi ideas, and usually, when I found them again — whether in his Marvel work including the surprisingly brilliant Uncanny X-Force and his current run on Captain America, or his creator-owned undertakings such as the sci-fi classic Fear Agent and the impressive ongoing Black Science — I was fully behind pretty much any project he announced. It wasn’t until I read the backmatter of the first issue of Low, though, that I realized another aspect of his storytelling was grabbing me by the scruff and dragging me to read his comics.
In that issue, Remender said that in all his years of writing, he had never taken on a main character who was an optimist. Until Low, all of his protagonists have been at best pessimists — or as I would have normally called them until recently, realists — and at worst defeatists. (I would argue that his take on Captain America is still optimistic against all odds, but with that exception aside, the point is valid.) Stel Caine, by contrast, is unflinchingly optimistic in the face of almost-certain annihilation, and it seems that part of Remender’s interest in writing Low is exploring that seeming paradox. I am drawn to tales of the misanthrope and the doomsayer, I will admit, and Remender’s admission at the end of the first issue had me shaking my head and wondering if I would be able to cope with this character and her story.
After five issues, I am pleased to say that I am. Sometimes when reading Low I feel like Stel’s son Marik, frustrated beyond belief by her seemingly foolish attitude in the face of obliteration, but more often than not I find her inspiring. It doesn’t hurt that Remender and Tocchini have created an imaginative future with a depressingly realistic depiction of human society and gorgeously horrifying technology. The world of Low is ripe for story potential and I am excited to see the direction these creators will take us.
As I’ve already said, I was really looking forward to Tocchini’s art on this project; his work on The Last Days of American Crime was a huge delight and surprise, and he has been a breath of fresh air on other projects such as FF, Batman & Robin, and Uncanny X-Force. His work on Low is a bit of a mixed bag for me; as always his design work is brilliant and his page layouts creative and expansive, but he’s so loose on the figures and the faces that sometimes the image seems distorted. Thematically it works with the aquatic setting, with people slightly misshapen and deformed as if the reader is seeing them through water, but there are times I wish he had taken a little more time on establishing the details more strongly. That being said, Tocchini is a creative dynamo and I am still looking forward to the creativity and energy he brings to future issues.
Low is that rare dystopian tale that actually fills me with hope instead of resignation, and not only am I surprised that Remender and Tocchini are capable of it but I am also surprised at how much I like it. They are trying something daring with this project, and despite some small initial doubts I feel like they will have created something amazing when it’s all said and done.
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I somehow managed to enjoy more than surprisingly upbeat dystopian comics this week, however. Here are a couple other things that caught my attention over the past seven days.
Comedy: For some reason, I listened to Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me Live three times in the past two days. Well, not for just some reason, for the reason that it’s really good. I am a big fan of Birbiglia’s comedy. His writing is really smart and encompasses many different topics and stories that are woven together, so it is particularly satisfying when he pulls out a callback to a previous storyline or leaves one story on an apparent tangent that is actually part of a much larger story. The writing is helped even more by his delivery, which is often dry and slower, but he can also effectively shift into high excitement and anger and even down into moments of honesty or quiet reflection. In Sleepwalk With Me Live Birbiglia tells many stories: a story of him becoming a standup, a story of his brush with death when he was a teenager, a story of his first love, a story of his relationship with his father, and more. When it’s all said and done, though, it’s all one story, and it’s a story that’s a little unbelievable, a little heartbreaking, and most importantly, very, very funny.
Television: I finally saw the first episode of Agent Carter and I am happy to report that I really liked it. I loved that it was definitely modern but also unafraid of feeling like an old-school spy show every once in a while; it was fresh and funny and action-packed and had characters that I instantly found a connection with. Hayley Atwell is terrific as the clever and resourceful Sharon Carter, and James D’Arcy’s performance as Edwin Jarvis is another standout. So far it looks like a very promising show that I hope continues to perform at this level. It’s got too much promise to live and die as a mini-series.
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That’s all I have in the tank this week, folks. Until next time, try to explore a little positivity when all around is dark. I’ll see you in seven days.
