Low #8

By Rick Remender, Greg Tocchini, Dave McCaig

“You’ve done well, Mertali. We will certainly find fuel and air tanks here.”

“In a derelict husk. This close to the surface, Zem? The water is poison at these levels.”

Somebody has lost her optimism…

Issue #8 of Low is here! Which means creators Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini aren’t done with the story of Stel and the Caine family quite yet. Recent events however have taken the ever hopeful Stel and turned her into a bit of a pessimist. She’s convinced she’s responsible for the recent tragedies that have befallen her family, and with all they’ve been through already things aren’t looking good. Her son Marik however became infused with her hopeful nature, and a few of the people he helped are now by Stel’s side in her search for a future for all living things – a future that doesn’t involve living at the bottom of the ocean waiting for the inevitable end of times.

Writer Rick Remender (who recently left Marvel to pursue his creator-owned work – good news since they’re all awesome!) uses this issue to focus on the new team dynamic Stel finds herself in. She’s with two gladiators from Poluma, one of which shares his dark past in order to convince Stel that what’s happened to her family is nowhere near as horrible as what he did to his – after sharing his story no one else on the ship seems too happy with him though…

Greg Tocchini comes into this issue with his classic pencils and inks, but now on color duty there’s Dave McCaig, which gives the pages a bit of a different vibe than issues past – most noticeably seeing a wider range of colors implored, whereas before red and orange were mostly dominate.

A great page featuring the detailed art of Tocchini and the colors by McCaig shows the small ship of the three new crew mates making its way up to the surface. The ship is shrouded in shadow, except for the red bubbles on top that serve as their windows. The ocean around them in a mixture of greens as in the background Tocchini has placed a sunken city beaten by its time spent underwater. It makes you wonder what it’s going to look like when they finally get to land… if they do that is.

Remender and Tocchini, along with McCaig, deliver another great issue of Low as Stel finds herself in what some would call a “pickle” towards the issues end. Will her new friends be enough to save her?