Review: Descender Vol. 5- Rise of the Robots

February 13, 2019 ComicBookWire

Quick Summary

Pros: The story here is interesting and is enhanced by a number of exciting twists. The characters here are better than ever. The conclusion provides a wonderful setup for the series conclusion. The artwork continues to look great.

Cons: Nothing significant.

Overall: The penultimate volume in the Descender series ends up being one of the best. It has beautiful artwork, unexpected twists, character development, and even a few emotional moments. While all of this is playing out, the entire narrative is also building toward an even more epic final volume. The end result is the creation of a comic with a lot of positives and essentially no major negatives. Fans of this series should definitely read this volume.

Story

Descender Vol. 5: Rise of the Robots, by Jeff Lemire, is a fantastic comic book and a reaffirmation of how good this series can be. It marks a return to the tense and unexpected storytelling that made this series so entertaining to begin with, while also pushing it further and further into the future. Readers get a chance to learn more about the characters in this book and also see how the epic conflict between the UGC and the Hardware is set to enter its final stages. The entire adventure is entertaining and makes for one of the best volumes in this series.

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After two volumes that primarily focused on character development and setup for future volumes, it is a nice change of pace to have a collection that holds its own as an individual story. The action throughout this collection is thrilling, partly because of how completely unexpected most of its ends up being. In this volume, the robots decimate the UGC fleet in a sneak attack, Dr. Quon almost kills Tim-22 through an unprecedented display of strength, and Tim-22 seriously injures Dr. Quon through a sucker punch attack. Each of these twists and turns help push the conflict forward and generate some suspense in the meantime.

However, this level of action does not mean that there is no character development. Within this collection, readers get a chance to learn a little bit more about Tim-21. His ability to sneak away from the leaders of the Hardware and then make his way to the surface of a planet shows that he has a few more tricks up his sleeve than initially believed. In addition, his interactions with Telsa and Quon reinforce the status of Tim-21’s new “family” and are simply wholesome to see in general.

Rise of the Robots also does a lot in setting up the final volume of this series. The conflict between humans and robots has significantly escalated and is clearly entering its endgame. The sum total of human and robot forces are set to face off in a battle that will result in disaster for at least one side. It also reexplores Tim-21’s unique connection to the Harvesters and ends by stating these Harvesters are set to return in the very near future. All of this points toward a cataclysmic final volume that, with this comic’s positive track record, I am very excited to read.

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Art

The artwork in Rise of the Robots continues to demonstrate how beautiful this series can be. Dustin Nguyen’s artwork displays the cosmic wonder of space and the strange intricacies of alien worlds with equal levels of wonder and detail. His work here also continues to accurately present a visually diverse cast of characters while also continuing to capture their detailed emotions. This volume essentially continues the fantastic artwork ComicBookWire has raved about in past reviews, though it also manages to include some artistic surprises at the conclusion of the collection. Overall, this is a gorgeous book that helps in telling this story.