Descender: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 2

Descender #4-6

by Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen (Artist)

Young Robot boy Tim-21 and his companions struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. Written by award-winning creator, JEFF LEMIRE, DESCENDER is a rip-roaring and heartfelt cosmic odyssey that pits humanity against machine, and world against world, to create a sprawling sci-fi epic. Volume 2 sees the final solution of the Harvesters come to its life-altering fruition as the fate of the entire galaxy rests in the hands of one young robot who's finally ready to take the great leap forward.

Collects DESCENDER #17-32

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Adventure

424 pages, Hardcover

First published December 3, 2019

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creator on pic


THIS WAS FREAKING AWESOME & sad I love this whole series so much!!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The exciting and interesting sci-fi soap opera of Descender continues. Vol Two covers the events up to Issue 32 of the Comic series.

The events in the 2nd volume are truly epic. Volume Two will answer quite a few questions and start a few more. It will serve as an ending and a beginning. I really enjoyed the roller coaster ride and give a nod of respect to Jeff Lemire for telling a great sci-fi story. Without spoilers, this volume not only brings to the climax the Tim-21/Tim-22 conflict, but it will also draw together the disparate sides of the galactic conflict into one final meeting with the Harvesters.

While I was never a huge fan of the artwork, it did grow on me. I hardly even thought anything of it in this second volume. This is a character and story driven epic, thus the less detailed style of the art seems to highlight the individual characters. It is in the characters this comic truly shines. From Tim-21 to the original Ancient Robot-all of the characters, love them or hate them, are what make this story so awesome. The big picture events are indeed cool- but I liked this series so much due to the characters. Well done Jeff Lemire.

Any fan of a large sci-fi opera (think "The Expanse") will enjoy this epic series about hate, war, and their opposite numbers in love and loyalty as well. I really enjoyed this entertaining series and am glad to have added this Deluxe Edition to my collection. It is nice.

[Lukasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific read.

And rather sad. The conclusion shows that there can be no peace where humans are involved. Humanity has twisted the gift of creation and built slaves, not companions. When machinekind fought back, the fear led humanity to hunt robots down and destroy them.

In the end, though, organic lifeforms are just meat. Soft and full of fear. And dreams. I loved the ending; It's darker than I expected from this story but leaves a glimmer of hope.

What now? Well, I need to get this Ascender hardcover asap.

Edit: there's no Ascender hardcover :/ Digital editions will have to do :)

[JT · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of great pay off and a lot of great moments. That reunion though... Lemire knows how to make people fall in love with his characters and this book was no exception. The ending felt meh and a bit rushed, but organic... a weird thing to say I know lol

[Maksym Karpovets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Неймовірно динамічне продовження історії. Усі наші персонажі розкидані, кожен бореться зі своїми ворогами й страхами, долаючи час і простір, минуле й теперішнє. Основний фокус, звісно, на боротьбі Tim-21 зі своїм двійником, гіршою його версією. Просто дивуєшся, наскільки уміло й глибоко прописує Лемір своїх персонажів (навіть другорядних, як-от Дріллера), а в цьому випадку - робота, наділяючи його гуманізмом і емпатією. Зрозуміла, що така сатира щодо людства тягнеться ще з часів Азімова та Діка, а потім кочує в кінематограф, але в коміксах це чи не найбільш вдала спроба зобразити конфлікт між людиною та машиною, виявити потенційні небезпеки в домінування що одних, що інших.

Щодо самого конфлікту, якщо першим том був більше поступовим наростанням напруги між людьми, інопланетними расами й роботами, то вже цей том - вибух цього конфлікту в прямому й переносному сенсі. Друзки летять у різні світи, які Лемір продовжує додавати й розкривати (момент магії взагалі нагадав Артура Кларка), створюючи справді широку панораму різноманітних рас, планет і культур. Основне в цій міфології те, що Лемір нарешті пояснює звідки взялися гігантські роботи й загалом універсум, подаючи дуже цікаву теорію щодо походження людської раси.

Мене ж найбільш підкупила комплексність історії, бачення її завершення і відкритий кінець, що плавно перекидає нас в наступний цикл Ascender. Можливо, мені бракнуло деталізації, конкретизації певних аспектів, але Лемір не ставив собі цього завдання, щоб не відволікатись від основного. Загалом, фінал мене влаштовує, він не позбавлений драматизму й повчання, хоча й можна було би ще подумати над його альтернативними версіями. На завершення скажу, що це надвзичайно яскравий і вдалий приклад космоопери з динамічною, сповненою твістів і мелодраматизму історією, яку спокійно можна внести до золотої скарбниці наукової фантастики.

[Whitney Jamimah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing conclusion to a new favorite comic book series for me. I loved the introduction of magic into this world. I loved the open ended intrigue that the series left off with. Things wrapped up well enough for those who had to wait for Ascender but piqued my interest immensely and made me really happy there is more to the story. I have been yelling at all my comic reading friends to give Descender a shot.

[Oleh Bilinkevych · Rating 5 out of 5]

Якщо ви коли-небудь запитували себе, чи існує ідеальний комікс, то ось він.
Обов’язково хочу знайти друкований варіант, бо це справжній шедевр.

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the truths are finally revealed and thankfully the ending was unexpected. This volume was a little more straightforward, moving the plot along as opposed to getting to know the characters better like in the first volume. It's more edge of your seat, action than thoughtful, but it still has an emotional moment or two.

Again, I still don't think there is anything really groundbreaking, but it's so well crafted and an entertaining read. One of Lemire's better works, certainly. It also sets up for the sequel Ascender.

[Scopic · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10
Felt a bit anti-climactic, despite all the action. Character arcs were all over the place and I didn’t care for the introduction of magic.
But the ART is TEN outta TEN. I’ll read the follow up series, Ascender, purely because the graphics. Will wait until all the issues are online, though.

Read on readcomiconline.to

[Abbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the human characters constantly flip flop on if they should or shouldn’t destroy Tim-21. It’s exhausting. The robots won?

[Trevor ComicFan · Rating 5 out of 5]

97

Such a good book. This definitely has a cliffhanger ending and is more like the second book in a trilogy versus the closer of a series.

One thing I really appreciated was that Nguyen did the art throughout the whole thing, even the flashback to 4000 years ago. Very often Lemire uses other artists for flashbacks, but now that I think about it, that’s more in his works where he is the main artist.

GOATED and in my top ten series!

I guess the overall series gets a 98, but I will count Ascender in there for my comprehensive score once I get to my Deluxe Edition HC!

[Amanja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Descender is a science fiction graphic novel that primarily deals with the question of when an AI becomes human (or vice versa). There are many books and movies that cover this topic and many even do it well. Descender stands out amongst the graphic novels of this type with its gorgeous artwork and gutwrenching emotions.

to continue to the full review please visit https://amanjareads.com/2021/06/24/de...

[Henry Blackwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this — it deserves a big review so maybe I’ll leave that til the next time I reread this. But the one thing I will say is that I don’t rate Lemire’s writing on this... there’s a lot of story here that is forced. Lemire has a terrible habit of structuring his narrative in a way where it doesn’t make sense but he forces it through anyway.

For example, there’s an issue within this trade where Tim slips away from Psius, the hardwire freedom fighter robot, while on his ship. This leads to Tim using an escape pod to get away from the most shadowy terrorist organisation in the galaxy...

this is terribly lazy writing. These are robots. Their logic to Tim disappearing from sight should’ve led them to locking down use of the Escape Pods immediately. But this was the moment where Lemire needed Tim to escape, so he didn’t bother wasting time making it an interesting escape — he just does it because he’s supposed to at that time.

And that underpins a lot of the problem behind this book. The characters are terribly dull and shallow. They don’t have much progression. Telsa stays consistently awful until the end where she has a final change of heart which is supposed to excuse her for being a horrible character for 25 and a half issues before that moment. And to top it all off, it ended with a deux ex machina. This is so disappointing from what I remember.

Ergh, there i go again making the review longer than I wanted.

[James De Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descender: The Deluxe Edition Volume 2 by Jeff Lemire 

TIM-21’s journey continues. We learn more secrets about the machines and are provided some explanations that help us understand the world of Descender a bit more. There are some betrayals, some good character moments, and some interesting revelations that help tie the story fairly well.  



The conclusion was not completely satisfying to me, but it still felt better than the way Sweet Tooth ended…still a bit unsure about that one... While there are a lot of positives, the one glaring drawback this book has is that it drags a bit. There are 16 issues here, but it could have easily been 10-12 instead.

But here's the thing, in this volume Lemire introduces some magical elements that sort of come out of nowhere. This was unexpected to me and it deviated from the machine/robot/science focus that the book had up to that point. Now, introducing magic is not necessarily a bad thing - story elements change all the time; people get new ideas and adapt the original story to fit new content. It happens. But given the focus of the book, it felt a bit forced at the time and I’m willing to bet that Lemire would have liked to introduce those elements earlier in the story.

Obviously Lemire did this because he wanted to keep writing stories set in this world. I realized later that the addition of magic was because Lemire and Nguyen were laying the ground work for their follow up book “Ascender”, where the story picks up a 10 years later and magic has taken over machinery.

Overall, Lemire is a very unique writer that can concoct very different stories seemingly from thin air. The man is truly gifted, and this is a pretty good sci-fi story.  

Overall, 3.5/5 for story and 4/5 for art. 

[All is on books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the water color and the story.

[Seroxx83 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was incredible! A space opera with some of the best characters I’ve ever read. Heartwarming and heartbreaking but ending with lots of hope still. An incredible exploration of the beauty in humanity amidst all of the ugliness.

The art was incredible and unique. I’ve never seen watercolor style comic and it completely worked! The different shading for flashbacks and ai worlds was inventive and beautiful. This series is unbelievable!!

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great continuation from the previous hardcover. Story actually goes some unexpected places, with some cool reveals about the origins of the robots etc. I could see the ending being divisive at the time of publishing, but when reading it now it seems to segue into Ascender quite nicely.

[OmniBen · Rating 4 out of 5]

(spoiler free)
I started reading Descender completely blind. I knew it was a science fiction story, although apart from that, I knew nothing. I knew that Lemire didn't draw this one (which is a plus in my book as I prefer him to stick to writing and let other more accomplished artists handle the pictures, so I might actually start with the art for once. I found Nyugen's style very interesting and appealing. His washed out water colour like colours fit the art well and most panels were well drawn and helped to draw me into the story. It certainly made for a nice change from the more typical Western comic style and gave the story an added artistry that helped to flesh out an independent identity. Occasionally the quality of the panels dipped a little, which was disappointing, but it was mostly good to great throughout the run. Nyugen was the only artist used throughout the 32 issue arc. it would have been annoying to see a completely different style interspersed throughout the story, so I'm glad that didn't happen.

Lemire is often a case of substance over style for me. He has some well thought out, interesting idea's for stories, but he often just never quite lands them as strongly as I would have liked. The characters in this story should have been its greatest asset, although were it's biggest flaw, for me. Telsa, the main female protagonist is thoroughly unlikeable, and not in a good way. her motivations are very one note (I have to rebel against/impress my father) who also happens to be the leader of the galactic equivalent of the UN. Hardly the most original premise in the world, so to be executed in such an average way was disappointing. In fact, the robot characters are far more interesting, and I cared about them more than their human equivalents. On one hand, it could be looked at as a strength of Lemire's that he could make me care about machines. Though on the other, to make a balls of writing interesting, multi layered human protagonists at the expense of the robots in the story might not be such a cause for praise. the other major disappointment for me was the lack of attention given to major plot points in the story. When you would reach a crucial part of the story, either for character or plot development, it would be rushed and never given the appropriate time to be and to breathe. Interactions that should have been given a few pages at least are given a few panels at most. important discussions that should have been properly examined are over in a few sentences. As a writer and someone who deeply values these moments within a story, it left me feeling deflated and knowing so much more could have been achieved with a little more focus on these area's. The story runs across 32 arcs, so there was time to flesh this out. A better editor should have reigned Lemire in. It would have been all the better for it.

In the end, Descender is still quite decent. It's hard for me to overlook those few things I have mentioned. I would go into more detail, or discuss others, but I want to keep this spoiler free and relatively brief. a good story, competently, though not conclusively told, though one that isn't greater than the sum of its parts, despite looking rather nice. 3.5

OmniBen.

[Roman Zarichnyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Подорож Tіма-21 у мальописі «Descender» триває далі. Ми дізнаємось більше інформації про машини та отримаємо пояснення, які допомагають більше зрозуміти світ Джеффа Леміра. Але, якщо в першому томі сценарист розвивав події поступово, знайомлячи із головними героями, расами та поглиблюючи читача в конфлікт між живими створіннями та роботами, то в другій — динаміка й напруга набирають найбільших обертів. У конфлікт втягнуті всі, а існування живих створінь узагалі стоїть під питанням.
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Та все ж, в основі — хлопчик-робот Тім-21, який не тільки продовжує розбиратися з нерозумінням жорстокості людей до роботів. Але перебуває в боротьбі зі своїм двійником, що ріс у жорстоких та важких умовах. Це безпосередньо вплинуло на його світогляд, де місцю доброті, щирості та відвертості узагалі немає. Тут Лемір гарно підводить до теми гуманізму та й емпатії, як таких. Але не тільки їхній прояв у «живих машинах», а саме вплив соціуму на особистість, буде то людина чи робот. І що найголовніше, показує наслідки довготривалого впливу оточення, у якому ти живеш, на погляди та вчинки в майбутньому.
⠀
Також важливо згадати саме про міфи й загадки, якими оповиті Гігантські роботи, Женці, у світі Descender. Адже саме в другій збірці Лемір надає пояснення їхній появі, цілі та, як зародилося життя на планетах Об’єднаної Галактичної Ради. Якщо грубо узагальнити, то такі ідеї не є чимось новим. Але в даній історії — це є той елемент, який не погано формує міфологію існування самого всесвіту та, хто є творцем живого життя.
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Найбільшою несподіванкою для мене тут було те, що автор відхиляється від основного фокусу на роботах, науки та технологічного розвитку, а додає магічні елементи, які, на перший, погляд, не пасують цій історії. Загалом змішування жанрів не є поганою річчю, дякуючи цьому старі елементи історії формують нові ідеї, що в результаті надає зовсім іншого забарвлення мальопису. Та і світи загалом можуть бути різними, це вже залежить від фантазії сценариста.
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Перфектне продовження серії. А ось, як вплине фентезі складова на історію побачу вже в коміксі «Ascender».

[Václav · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4,4 of 5, for it was all nice and adventurous but Everything Changed When the Robo Nation popped up)
I must say the second Library edition picked the awesomeness where the first ended. But it somehow started getting sour for me when the robots came into the picture and changed the dynamic and momentum of the story. And they kept changing that several times.
Still, it came out great, though the finale was a bit cliché. But it left a bitter note, kind of making me doubt my hopes for the follow-up Ascender series.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I was bit disappointed with the ending (maybe because I lost momentum while waiting to get a copy of the last third of this collection), I still really enjoyed the fascinating characters and interesting world in which they live.

[Jake Nap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff. Even though the setting could not be more different, the heart and soul of this book is very similar to Sweet Tooth. Lemire and Nguyen are master storytellers and their large scale space opera is among the best image books.

9/10 for the series

[Tim Nowotny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it splits its story over a few too many characters, it brings the first half of the story to a very nice conclusion.
What would you do if god comes and he is an arsehole? And what can you do?

I am intrigued how this will develop.

[Danilo Otašević · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predak

Nepoznata galaksija je pravi raj za sav inteligentan živalj. Devet planeta živi u harmoniji posredstvom UGV (Ujedinjeno Galaktičko Veće) koje je garant njihove sigurnosti. Tehnološki razvitak lagano uzima maha, pa se, vremenom, razvijaju i visokofunkcionalni roboti koji se koriste u različite svrhe. U početku su bili zaduženi isključivo za manuelne poslove, da bi izumima dr. Kuona poprimili ljudske karakteristike. Nove robote je maltene nemoguće razlikovati od ljudi, što zbog fizičkog izgleda što zbog sistema koji im je ljudskost doveo do savršenstva. Ta, na prvi pogled, neuništiva harmonija se ruši pojavom Žetaoca. Bez objašnjenja, ovi monumentalni roboti su uništili dobar deo civilizovanog sveta. Uništili su i otišli, ostavivši za sobom galaksiju na ivici kolapsa.

Deset godina nakon ovih nemilih događaja, robopratnja Tim-21 se budi na zabačenoj rudarskoj planeti. Bio je deaktiviran tokom kolapsa, pa ne zna šta se desilo sa svetom, niti sa njegovom porodicom. Termin robopratnja u sebi sadrži njegovu namenu. On je bio brat malon Endiju koji nije imao mnogo prijatelja zbog majčinog posla i konstantnih selidbi. Tim se kači na sajberprostor i istog trenutka ostaci UGV-a dobiju njegov signal. Nisu verovali da je bilo koji pripadnik ove serije robota preživeo. Mali Tim je mnogo bitniji nego što to na prvi pogled izgleda jer, za vreme njegovog nestanka, shvatili da on krije tajnu dolaska Žetaoca. UGV ne gubi vreme, pa odmah šalje elitni tim vojnika, predvođen kapetanicom Telsom da dovede Tima kako zna i ume.

Predak je jako zanimljiv serijal. Space opera je podžanr naučne fantastike koji jako retko dobija prostora u stripu zbog specifičnog stila pripovedanja. Lemir je crpeo inspiraciju iz mnogih dela naučne fantastike, ne samo pomenutog podžanra. Opisati devet planeta i različite kulture koje na njima žive nije lak zadatak, pa se Lemir odlučio da se centralna radnja odvija na samo tri. Sem ljudske, prisutne su i mnoge druge rase, ali one ne dobijaju prostor za razvitak, u smislu da o njima ne saznajemo maltene ništa, osim par rečenica sa vremena na vreme. To mi je, donekle, pokvarilo celokupni užitak, mada je Lemir to nadomestio sjajnom izgradnjom sveta i predistorijom koju dobijamo što impicitno, što eksplicitno.

Sem UGV-a, u serijalu su prisutne i mnoge druge grupacije sa svojim, manje ili više, smislenim motivacijama. Gniš, jedna od planeta, je sedište takozvanih Smećara, lovaca na sve tipove robota. Očekivano, dobar deo sveta krivi robote za uništenje, pa je rasizam (ako tako uopšte mogu da kažem) jak. Ožičani su robo-teroristi koji, dijametralno suprotno od Smećara, smatraju da ih je sistem sve vreme ugnjetavao, pa, uz malo terorizma, pokušavaju da pošalju jasnu poruku. Na kraju, tu su i Međuljudi, ljudska bića sa mnogostrukim implantima koji se bore za suživot robota i ljudi. U suštini, sve grupacije su jako logične kada uzmete u obzir radnju i Lemir ne izlazi iz domena očekivanog.

Lemir u priču uvodi mnogo likova. Sem Tima, Endija, Kuona i Telse, prisutni su general Nagoki (lider UGV-a i Telsin otac), Svrdrlaš i Bandit (dva robota koji kreću sa Timom u avanturu), Efi (Endijeva bivša devojka i lider Međuljudi), Slok i Snok (otac i sin, kraljevi planete Gniš), Psius (lider Ožičanih) i mnogi, mnogi drugi. Centralne ličnosti dobijaju sjajnu karakterizaciju, ali imao sam utisak da neki nisu dobili valjanu karakterizaciju, a, kako serijal odmiče, primećivao sam i ozbiljan problem sa plot armorom (fenomenom kada centralnim likovima ne može ništa da se desi jer radnja ne bi mogla da se razvije, najčešće priustno u mangama). Sve ovo je minorna kritika, ali dovoljna da serijalu ne dam perfektnu ocenu.

Scenaristički gledano, sama radnja je izrežirana jako dobro. U svakoj epizodi se dešava nešto bitno za radnju, nema praznog hoda, a Lemir povremeno, nakon centralne tačke u radnji, uzima predah i pripoveda origin priču mnogobrojnih junaka. Te epizode, iako na prvi pogled možda nebitne, su po meni najbolje jer su perfektno pozicionirane. Još jedna stvar koju je Lemir vešto izbegao je senzacionalizam. Sami znate da je to u američkom stripu sveprisutno, ali ovde toga nema. Nakon Predka, Lemir je objavio i serijal nastavak Potomak koji još uvek nije izašao kod nas. Nisam ni sam mogao da pretpostavim da će kraj biti ovako otvoren, a verujem da bi celokupni utisak bio mnogo bolji da mogu da pročitam "pravi" kraj.

Pre nego što završim ovu, već predugu recenziju, red je da prokomentarišem i crtež Dastina Ngujena. Jedna reč: savršen. Upotreba akvarela, sjajne boje i dizajn likova dorpinose tome da Lemirova vizija mnogo bolje dođe do izražaja. I da, ne mogu rečima da opišem koliko mi je drago da je Lemir angažovao nekoga za ovaj serijal, a da nije sam crtao. Ne mrzim njegov crtež poput nekih, ali za ovakvu priču prosto ne bi funkcionisalo.

Sve u svemu, mnogo sam se dobro proveo. Dugo nisam čitao ni gledao ništa iz žanra naučne fantastike, pa mi je ovo leglo kao budali šamar. Iako Lemir ni jednog trenutka ne izlazi iz domena očekivanog, nekada to prosto i ne mora biti slučaj. Sjajna space opera sa upečatljivim likovima i prelepim crtežom. Preporuka.

ocena: 9/10

PS: Telsa mi je sve vreme išla na živce. To sam zaboravio da spomenem. Retko iritantno napisan lik.

[Inga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally, I loved the entire story (even though it's technically not over). I think the characters are well-rounded and all have well developed motivations, the plot twist was unexpected and the overall pacing of the story was great.

But I was a bit annoyed with one thing, and since that thing is a huge spoiler, I decided to hide the entire review.

The whole idea that the destruction caused by the "Harvesters" is supposed to be a warning is utterly ridiculous. How do you do a "warning" without an actual warning? Isn't the point of warning to tell people that bad things are gonna happen if they do something? What exactly did Descenders expect by killing a bunch of people?

My main argument is this - they are acting irrationally and are basing their actions on emotional judgement.

Humanity are mistreating machines, but we're never shown any resistance from them, no one is speaking up. For a human who grew up not knowing that machines have feelings and that treating them like things is wrong, this is not an obvious conclusion to reach. Empathy to other life forms can be easily severed by stereotyping, objectification and promotion of a supposed benefit of the current arrangement for both parties involved. These are some of the reasons why so little people opposed slavery in the 19th century US.

Now back to the story. I'm going to make an assumption that Descenders wanted humans to stop abusing machinekind. The issue of AI rights is one of my favorite topics in sci-fi and I love stories that go deeper into the feelings and experiences of artificial people, which is one of the things I love so much about this comic. This is also the reason why I am appalled by the method Descenders use. How in the world would an intelligent, rational beings ever think that killing millions of people would help save machinekind from oppression, when you don't give them any clue that that is the reason you're killing them? Isn't retaliation the most obvious response from an emotional and irrational creatures who already treat machines as lesser beings? If Descenders really wanted to help machinekind, they would never do anything like that.

This, then, brings me back to one of my original statements - that Descenders are not as rational as the reader is led to believe. Otherwise their actions make no sense.

Alright, so let's say they are irrational and they are angry at humans for mistreating machines. They don't have to be rational and bad choices of characters is one of the things that moves the plot forward and creates drama. So normally, I wouldn't even complain about this, if the whole situation wasn't presented as humans' fault.

Most stories with a moral have a character, whose point of view the reader is supposed to agree with. In this case, our moral compass is Tim 21. So the problem is that the moral compass never actually argues that what Descenders did (and what they were about to do!) was inhumane. Instead, he agrees that humans are at fault and promises that they will do better. And this is exactly what I hate about this comic. It is the only thing I hate, but it's a huge disappointment.

The moral message is super annoying, and it isn't even original. It's the same moral fallacy that appears in the Bible and because we as a culture decided that the Bible is for some reason a suitable moral guide, this kind of f*cked-up crap appears everywhere. The simple and obvious idea that just because someone is "all-wise" and "all-powerful" doesn't mean they have the right to kill people suddenly becomes less obvious when we deal with characters that present themselves as gods. And that's what the Descenders are presented as. And that's why so many readers might easily forgive them the genocide they caused. The Abrahamic God does all sorts of crimes against humanity, abuses his power any time he can and cruelly punishes humans for petty things, but we as a culture decided that was ok because he's "God".

Ugh, all this ranting made me forget about another thing I wasn't too happy about - the addition of magic into the universe of Descender. It is something that Jeff Lemire is super excited about, but I am not a fan of magic and if it's gonna be the central point of Ascender, I'm not too enthusiastic about picking it up.

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roboti s emocemi jsou tu s námi prakticky od vzniku slova robot. Přesto se mi to zde zpočátku zdálo lehce nepatřičné. Možná proto, že jinde jsme většinou zvyklí vnímat emoce u robotů jako něco vtipného. Tady jde ale o mnohem více. Tohle je Jeff Lemire, takže jde o skutečné emoce. Tohle je drama, ve kterém nejde o nic menšího než o střet uhlíkových a silikonových bytostí. O střet plný nenávisti a zášti. A na jeho pozadí se snaží malý nevinný robotický chlapec najít svého lidského bráchu.

Příběh je poměrně zajímavě vystavěný. Nepracuje se spoustou nezodpovězených otázek, ale občas se odhalí něco, co celý příběh posune, a celý svět udělá o něco složitější a komplexnější. Je zde jediná velká otázka. Kdo jsou obří roboti, kteří zdecimovali populaci v celé galaxii a kdo je vyrobil. Velmi si cením toho, že všechny otázky byly průběžně zodpovězeny.

Není to nekonečná sága, ale poměrně komplexní a uzavřený příběh. Je to akční sci-fi jízda s jasný rukopisem Jeffa Lemira. To znamená, že z vás v pravidelných intervalech vymáčkne emoce a případně i nějakou tu slzu. Myslím si, že to je přesně ten důvod, proč jeho příběhy máme tak rádi.

Velmi výrazné je výtvarné zpracování tohoto komiksu. Stručně by se dalo říct, že je to vybarvené vodovkami. Popsat ale kresbu Dustina Nguyena nějak více není vůbec jednoduché. Než jsem si ty knihy koupil, tak jsem viděl jenom pár obrázků a okamžitě mi to spadlo do složky “chci, protože vodovky”. Pak mi ta kniha dlouho ležela v knihovně a já jsem se na tu kresbu těšil a možná si ji i idealizoval. Na začátku pak proto přišel trošku šok. Kresba není dokonalá ve smyslu preciznosti. Kresba je dělaná tužkou nebo pastelkou a tvoří ji jen tenká linka. Často je kresba jen částečná a zbytek je dodělaný barvami. Zpočátku jsem se možná příliš soustředil na detaily a někdy mi ta kresba přišla trošku odbytá. Tento pocit ale poměrně rychle odezněl.

Stejně jako kresba, zpočátku místy působil nedokonale i koloring. Obdivuji u všech autorů, kteří pracují s barvami, jak umí pracovat s prázdnými plochami, které zůstávají bílé, a které tam musí být, aby celý obraz fungoval. Obdivuji to, jak to musí mít dopředu promyšlené a oni s tím přitom pracují zcela přirozeně. Tady je to tak, že nevíte, jestli všechny bílé plochy, nedotažení, nebo naopak přetažení, jsou záměrem anebo ledabylostí. Ale to nejdůležitější na Nguyenově kresbě a koloringu je to, že jako celek to vypadá naprosto úžasně já jsem si to užíval. U mě je to ještě umocněno tím, jak je v barevných plochách vidět struktura uměleckého papíru, což se mi hrozně líbí.

P.S. Na začátku jsem zmínil vznik slova robot. Myslím že s R.U.R. se zde dají najít pěkné paralely a Jeff Lemire se Čapkem dost možná inspiroval.

P.S.2 Knihu jsem četl v anglickém vydání, ale věřím, že Comics Centrum odvedlo dobrou práci a plný počet hvězdiček patří i českému vydání.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 / 5, this is perfect material for a big budget hollywood movie with robots, space ships, laser guns and little to no plot because who watches those movies for a plot, am I right?

But seriously, the crucial property of Making Sense seems to be missing from this universe. Even basic continuity is broken in things from small to important. Too much illogical / impossible / nonsence / plot convenient stuff.

The whole story exists only because Descenders chose genocide as a means of delivering a message, without actually saying what it was for.

The premise as I understood it was that descenders shared some technology with the Ostrakon scientist, and then he was able to create a humanoid sentient robot. He told the robot "you serve me", and the robot immediately space-linked to his master race in another galaxy and told them "my human didn't pass the test, come bomb us ASAP". So the Jaeger I mean Harvester comes and wipes the planet. Competely reasonable response and not an overreaction at all, that human should've picked his words more carefully.

Then, 4000 years later, the Jaegers return and kill a most of the galaxy. Why? Turns out, it was just a warning against robot-labor exploitation. You'd expect such an advanced lifeform to be capable of basic communication, but apparently genocide for no apparent reason works best when you need to deliver a message. Did anyone in UGC understand the meaning of the attack?! "Lol, not our problem" - descenders, probably.

When huge ass robots destroy most of your planets, naturally, some anti-robot sentiments might arise. And they did, which made descenders angry.
"Hell no, you don't oppress robots after our robots murdered nearly all of you. It was a warning, didn't you get it?", they thought, and 10 years later came back to finish the business by wiping all non-machine life. Then decided to take the robots from humans because they didn't deserve owning machines. Proceeded to destroy the galaxy anyway. Solid reasoning all around.

What a disappointing resolution.

[Relstuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished reading the second (and final) hardcover of Descender last night.

Spoiler-ish thoughts:

I liked the ending better than I liked the ending to Sweet Tooth. I'm still not settled on what I think about the Sweet Tooth ending (and it's been well over a year since I last read it). Lemire keeps writings endings very different than anything I would have imagined.

I liked that we see interesting growth and development for some of the secondary characters along with our main characters. Driller's story is a good example of a secondary character that held my interest and attention without detracting from the main characters.

Conveying some truth or issue that provokes thought from your reader is frequently a feature of great writing. That said, in fiction it can be hard to do without being preachy. I'm not sure Lemire totally avoiding preachiness here but the idea that we treat machines like slaves and that treatment is a moral problem, is so foreign to our sensibilities I don't think readers really take it seriously (including the author?). While it is potentially possible to try to draw some sort of parallel to other issues, Lemire doesn't signal that is his intent (or if he did, I missed it).

One of the nice things about many creator owned works is art consistency and we get to have the same artist all the way through. While the art took a little getting used to, I ended up loving it, and it's color palette and style became an integral part of the feel of the story.

While this is the end of this story, there is a continuation that takes place years later, and appears to be centered on the next generation of some of the characters. I will definitely pick up the follow-up story, ideally when a hardcover comes out. :)

The book is mostly hard sci-fi throughout. However, at the very end Lemire introduces magic in this universe. But, there is no clarity on what the impact is. I assume this will be developed in the next chapter of the story.

[Ostrava · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent ending to an excellent series.

The resolution though seems to be about not having a resolution at all, or at least, buy some time in the form of plot potential. Now we're stuck with a sequel to further explore the universe that the Descenders have left behind.

And not only that, we have been bamboozled! This is an hybrid story, it's going full Star Wars now! Fine by me. I'm looking forward to it...to read it one of these days that is. But not now. I've have enough Descender for a while, maybe I'll allow the current run of Ascender to reach an ending and check it out if people like it.

This wasn't the deepest of stories, or the one with the most inventive writing... but it perfectly suited me anyway, and who doesn't enjoy some great space opera? It's a wonderful comic book, and different enough to Saga to not live in its shadow (I find it quite surprising actually that I found some elements here far more enjoyable than in Saga, it's a great series I tell you).

So anyway... great stuff! 100% recommend!