Comic Reviews: Image's Descender and Marvel's Silk

Its been a while since we got together to talk comics, so I thought I’d write about some of my favorite books from the past weeks.

If you’re not already familiar with the name Jeff Lemire, then we need to get you on board fast. Lemire was first known to me through heart wrenching works on Top Shelf, such as the Essex County books and the Underwater Welder. Now the writer/artist is increasingly known for his singular takes on science fiction like Sweet Tooth or Trillium on the Vertigo imprint. Through it all, Lemire still captures the emotional tones of human drama.

Lemire returns to sci-fi with his new Image series, Descender. Descender is the story of a young robot who awakens to a devastated world where his kind have been outlawed and hunted. Artist Dustin Nguyen imbues Lemire’s edgy world with washes of vibrant watercolor, making Descender a beautiful book to read. The second printing of Descender’s first issue hits at the beginning of April if you’ve slept on this one.

I have a habit of getting swept up by first issues of books only to hop off the train quickly as the series progresses. So, I was understandably wary when I read the first issue of Silk, a new Spider book from Marvel. After the second issue dropped this month, Silk seems to avoid the typical tropes of superhero books and keeps me coming back. After introducing the Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos created character in Amazing Spider-Man, Silk has been given her own book. Bitten by the same spider that gave Peter Parker powers, Cindy Moon was freed from a bunker and is now rediscovering the world she left behind. Writer Robbie Thompson keeps things moving with plenty of action without sacrificing dense character developments along the way. He makes us care about the character, keeping much of Cindy’s background a mystery. Fans of TV’s Supernatural should recognize his name. Stacey Lee’s art has an almost old school Disney animation feel to it, which adds a romanticism to the pages.

Side question: as a person not often swept up by traditional superhero books, unless it’s Batman, I’m asking for suggestions as to where I should start with the Flash? I’ve been enjoying what the show is doing and would love to dip my toes into the book, but have no clue where to start!

Joe David Thompson has been doing media reviews for websites such as Red Carpet Crash and the 405 Music Blog. For any questions or comments for Joe David Thompson, you can email him at jovid52@me.com and follow him on twitter @jovid52