Ascender #7 // Review
The question of how Telsa got to Sampson is answered in Ascender #7, by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Dustin Nguyen, and letterer Steven Wands. This issue gives readers some back story and also hints at what happened to another missing character from Descender.
Telsa is pulled underwater by the were whales, and it looks bad for her… until a bigger fish comes and swallows her. There is air inside the monster, and she goes back through the last ten years in her memory. Starting with Quon and her surviving the Descender attack ten years earlier, then jumping forward to when she met Helda, jumping forward again to the fall of Niyrata to Mother's forces, and finally, how the two of them made it Sampson. Telsa is about to give in to despair when Helda cuts her way in and saves her, after which the two share a passionate kiss. Back on the boat, they make Mila their second mate and continue their voyage to get to a ship and get off-world.
Lemire ended the last issue with multiple cliffhangers and opens this one with a tried and true storytelling tactic from the Descender days- pausing the action to do a flashback issue. Now, it would be easy to think of this as cheating, putting off resolving some of the things he'd set up, but these info-dump issues are very important, as they do some heavy character work. Readers get to see Quon again at the beginning of the issue, and for once, he's not the damsel in distress- he does the heavy lifting of saving himself and Telsa, then wants to continue on and find Tim-21 and the rest of the robots. Telsa refuses, wanting to stay and help survivors and goes to hit like she always did before. Now, though, he's more machine than man, and he catches her punch. This little interlude illustrates who they both are at that time- Quon has changed from the timid and terrified scientist into something new, while Telsa still believes in the UGC and wants to help rebuild it.
From there, Lemire shows readers how that idealism atrophied and died. She meets Helda on Niyrata as they both are trying to help people hurt in the attacks. They're kindred spirits, two people who haven't given up on the UGC. Helda tells Telsa about the rumors she's heard of the army sacking the outer rim territories and how they are backed up by monsters, but Telsa doesn't believe it at all… until the monster arrives on Niyrata and begins slaughtering everyone. It's at this point Telsa realizes that the UGC is dead and that survival is paramount. Lemire shows who she was and then how she became the way she is. Sure, there are gaps in the time frame, but he shows the important parts, allowing readers to put together what happens in between. He trusts his readers and gives them more than enough information to see where the whole thing is going and how it got there.
It's hard to find new ways to praise Dustin Nguyen's amazing art. This issue keeps up his run of stellar quality in the book. There a few very nice splash pages- the first one is of the monster fish as it comes after Telsa. The next one is Helda and Telsa kissing, which is a great moment, showing readers how the two of them found something special amid the ruins of society, and the last one shows all the dead werewhales Helda cut through to get to Telsa. Another stand out page shows the battle of Niyrata, and it's colored in a perfect way- lots of browns and reds, like dried and fresh blood, representing the slaughter going on.
Ascender #7 gives a reader a break from the overarching plot to spotlight Telsa, and it succeeds admirably. Lemire shows readers how Telsa went from being utterly loyal to the UGC to a broken down sea captain just trying to survive using three scenes. It's a deft bit of plotting. Nguyen's pencils and colors perfectly compliment the script. A lot of times, issues like this can anger readers- they want to see all of the stuff from the last issues resolved, but Lemire and company have mastered this kind of storytelling and use it wonderfully.
