Writer: Jeff Lemire / Artist: Andrea Sorrentino / Image
Primordial is the best kind of weird. There is no denying that Lemire’s twisted imagination as rendered by Sorrentino’s absolutely eldritch space horror isn’t one of the most compelling things on the shelves right now. At the halfway point, the dual narratives continue to orbit around each other with an increasing fervor, and it is a visual and narrative pleasure. It’s just an honor to be able to read this wild ride of a comic as it’s coming out.
In Primordial #3, Laika the Russian Space Dog continues to find herself in a weird non-space in outer space, but she has managed to finally meet up and interact with Baker and Able. And back on earth, Penbrook is still reeling in the fact that he has managed to get swept up in something with a much larger scope then he anticipated as Yelena keeps calmly trying to move the reconciliation process along. And as the different characters undergo various types of metamorphosis, I can’t help thinking about what a feet this book is.
All stories are at their finest when they leverage the medium they are in. While adaptations are great and allow for stories to become more accessible, there is something to be said about creators who use the medium to the fullest, and Lemire and Sorrentino do. There are spreads that only work as comic pages, whose details would be lost in pure prose or moving picture. There are framing and an emphasis that only a comic can do. Even the deliberate design of the dialog bubbles make it clear that Primordial was intended to be a comic. It was intended to be a piece of sequential storytelling that let Lemire precisely control the dialog and pacing of the story and give Sorrentino ample opportunity to show how great he is at cosmic horror.
There are still so many questions that the creative has yet to answer, and the progression through the two narratives remains awe-inspiring to behold. This is a book you’re going to want to get and stay current on, because you’re gonna wanna have folks to talk about all of the mind-bending things going on. Primordial already made a very strong case for one of the best mini-series of the year, and Primordial #3 continues to augment it.
9.6 “Big Changes” out of 10
Enjoying Primordial? Check out BNP’s other reviews here.
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