Ascender #4 Review

Writer: Jeff Lemire / Artist: Dustin Nguyen / Image Comics Yo man… I have never been so thirsty after reading a comic book. And I’m not thirsty because Ascender introduced some new sexy character that made me look inward at myself and my desires — I’m like, really thirsty. Dustin Nguyen’s art during this issue was so breathtaking, it left me with my jaw dropped, breathing heavily from my mouth for the entirety of this issue’s 26 pages. I think that as much as I loved Nguyen’s art in Descender, it’s aesthetic was very minimal. Nguyen took the less is more approach. The expanses of space and overly mechanical worlds were left for us to fill in where Nguyen laid the foundation. This isn’t at all a knock on that choice. I felt it really lent to the overall feel of the book and it was one of my favorite parts of that story. But so far in Ascender, we are seeing so much more on display from Nguyen. The universe is devoid of technology and skyscrapers. And they’re replaced with teeming vegetation, animals, and elements. One of this issue’s central scenes follows Andy, Mila, and Bandit on the run from some fire breathing dragons on Sampson, the planet they’ve been hiding out on for quite some time. There was a lot of movement as this was a chase scene, but it allowed us to see a lot of this world in a short amount of time. We see all of the primary elements on display, and it’s easily the most color I’ve seen from this series to date. It was beautiful, man. It’s such a different fee…