Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Low #1
Image Comics
Remender & Tocchini
Low is comic book that is as science-fiction as they come. The obvious comparison within this first issue is to the Fantastic Four. However, this comic is much more mature in its primary topic and in its execution. I found the first issue to be rather ordinary but the setup for a classic seems to be there. We’ll have to see how this comic progresses over the next few issues.
The basic setup is that the Earth is being swallowed up by the expanding sun. Any life form with the means lives in the ocean as they probe for other inhabitable planets. The trick to staying alive is finding food supplies and oxygen. As a result, “cities” are at war with each other over these resources.
The main family in the comic consists of a man and a woman (Johl and Stel) and their three children that seem to range from mid-teens down to tweens. This family seems to have the ability to do anything from finding a new planet to exiting the city in their own special tech. However, this issue brings about the problem as well.
This family takes to adventuring and it backfires badly in this issue. The cliffhanger seems to launch the direction of the comic and it isn’t about getting off Earth.
What works well in the book is the pacing. The comic moves quickly, it introduces the characters and the problems in a comprehensive but direct way. What works against it is the scenery.
The comic gives the appearance of a sparkling and fancy future. The city they live in doesn’t present any kind of dire strait for anyone. There is a very relaxed way about how they all seem to live. It’s an eerie tone for the big stage problems of expanding suns or invading neighbors.
The artwork is extremely hit or miss. Tocchini has a water-colored painting look to the work and that can be very appealing. I would say that it even matches the futuristic look to the comic book. However, the readers that want details are going to have a hard time with this comic book. I found it difficult to tell mother and daughter apart scene to scene. I had a difficult time be able to tell if a character was walking on something solid, invisible or was floating in the air. The light coloring works against the art in that regard. It’s a lovely comic book but it is not going to be for everyone’s tastes.
Low is a comic book that gives action and adventure against the futuristic backdrop. Remender’s letter in the back gives the reader an idea of how the characters came about, but it wasn’t until I read the letter that I realized the wife was the chief protagonist and not the husband. There are a lot of pieces here to like but I’m not sure how everything fits just yet. This is worth checking out.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
