Ascender #14
Old friends return and surprised abound in Ascender #14, by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Dustin Nguyen, and letterer Steve Wands. On Phages, Mila and company discover just what Bandit was carrying and it’s not just a map, while on Sampson, Effie, Andy, and Kanto make it to his village… but they aren’t the only ones.
On Phages, Telsa fills Quon in on what’s going on and Mila awakens, telling everyone about a vision she had. Quon agrees to fix Bandit. On Sampson, Andy, Effie, and Kanto enter his village, a ramshackle place with a church in the middle. The Church’s priest tells them that God has protected the village from detection but Effie senses an old cloaking field. Just then, Mother’s blinkers find them and they prepare for the worst. On Phages, Quon and Telsa argue, as usual, about where Bandit’s map will lead them, and the others talk. Quon is able to fix Bandit and instead of just a map, it opens a portal. On Sampson, Mother’s forces hit the village and in the church, the priest arms himself, Effie, and Andy with rifles and they attack the monsters coming at them, with Effie able to get her revenge on the vampire general Vix. On Phages, Mila and company go through the portal and find themselves on Dirishu-6 where they encounter UGC forces and an old friend.
This issue rapidly cuts between Phages and Sampson and builds until the final scenes in each- the battle in the village on Sampson and the discovery of the portal, where it leads, and who it leads to. Lemire paces it all very nicely, building up to both events. He starts everything slow and ramps things up more and more. The way he does it in each place is different as well- with Sampson, in the first sequence, he establishes the coming threat of Mother’s forces and juxtaposes it with the secret of the village’s survival. On Phages, he does it through dialogue, as everything grows more pitched- Quon and Telso arguing and Driller judging all of the In-Betweens on Phages, subtle signs of fraying nerves from waiting.
If there’s any drawback to Ascender, it’s that Lemire uses the same plot template a lot in the book- the issues build and build, and then the last page is a big surprise that hearkens back to Descender. It works rather well, but he repeats this same basic story structure a lot and this issue is no exception. The big reveal at the end of this issue is great for fans of the franchise but the rest of the issue is merely good with the big reveal at the end pushing the issue into great territory.
It’s hard to find new things to say about Dustin Nguyen’s art. It’s just so consistently good but what really stands out in this issue is his use of negative space on Phages and the way he uses darker colors during the monster’s march into the village on Sampson. On Phages, everything is meant to be clean and sterile and he accomplishes this by using a lot of white. There’s barely any background but this gives a feeling of both machine-like sterility and space. On Sampson, as the monster army approaches, everything gets darker, the army an encroaching wave of evil moving towards this little bastion of life.
Ascender #14 is a perfectly paced comic and that makes a lot of difference. Lemire builds everything up, giving readers two big moments for the price of one. Nguyen’s art is amazing as usual and his use of color really sells the feeling that Lemire is trying to invoke with the scenery. While the plot structure of this issue is pretty familiar, that doesn’t make the issue any less good, although it doesn’t hit the emotional highs of previous issues of the book.
Grade: B+
