Writer: Clay McLeod Chapman / Artist: Jakub Rebelka / Boom! Studios
There are a lot of post-apocalyptic stories out on the market. There are a fair number of stories of robots becoming caretakers for remnants of humanity. And Origins strives to try and carve out its own niche, and it slowly is beginning to establish the groundwork to do so, but the second issue feels like it’s just a little too slow to get up and running.
Origins #2 continues the two-pronged narrative of David and Chloe between the “Now” in the distant, distant future and the “Then” of the not-quite as distance future. Chapman does provide a concrete 989-year time difference between the two framing device which does accentuate how the circumstances have somehow grown more dire since the original technological apocalypse. There are hints at complicated moral philosophy questions and meditations reckoning with one’s legacy and inheritance, but it never quite gets there in a way that feels efficient.
That critique aside, the comic does and absolutely incredible job of telling its parallel narratives and is a perfect showcase on how creative teams can uniquely leverage the comic book media to tell stories in a way that couldn’t be done in other forms of media. Rebelka’s art alongside Delpeche’s colors do an exemplary job at distinguishes the eras, while also feeling a definite unity in their shared world. All of the sci-fi elements work incredibly well, it’s just that the components are a little more interesting the whole.
Origins has a beautifully crafted world, but the set pieces in more respects than one overshadow the story. The story is fine but does not grab me in the same way that the art has and as some of its siblings in the genre have done before. Moments feel good, but in its entirety, I find myself wanting more than the 20-some pages can provide in a month.
7.9 “Memories” out of 10
Enjoying Origins? Check out BNP’s other reviews here.
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