Zeb Larson reviews Descender #13…
“SINGULARITIES” continues as the mysteries of Telsa’s past are finally revealed. They may threaten not only Telsa, but the universe itself!
As a reader, there’s a narrative device that I really detest: the stall. This is where you get to a point in a story where a major twist, revelation, or event is just around the corner, but then the author spends a little while dithering with flashbacks or changing the setting. They bother me because it’s just feels like a way to stall, and this issue unfortunately falls into that trap. The story focuses on Telsa and her early life. What we learn is what we already basically knew about her, so even though her background does have some relevance to the plot, we didn’t need any of this exposition to get there. Warning: I will be discussing spoilers in this review.
Telsa’s path to becoming a soldier was not an easy one. Her mother was killed in the Harvester attack and her father was determined to keep her safe, so much so that she was forced to run away to join the UGC Academy. When he eventually found her, he accepted her decision and decided to support her, though still warily given the breakdown in the UGC. In the present, Quon tells his captors that both the ancient robot and Dr. Solomon are still alive, and he will lead them there. He also tells them exactly who Telsa is, making her a bargaining chip.
The best thing I could say about this issue is that Quon’s semi-betrayal is interesting. They were never exactly on the same side, and he was partly press-ganged into supporting her. While his disclosure of her background might be a serious blow to her pride, he’s also saving her from an imminent execution. That may not be his goal, as Quon is nothing if not selfish, but he did buy her time nonetheless. They’ll presumably trade her for some kind of access to Solomon and the robot, but as Quon has not actually disclosed their location, it could be just about anything.
The actual revelations about Telsa make for less-than-interesting reading, unfortunately. Perhaps I’m misremembering this part, but didn’t we already know that her dad was prominent in the UGC? Yes, the specific details such as the circumstances of her mother’s death were filled in here, but I’m not sure that any of it really changes what we know about her as a character. In any event, the exact same twists of the story could have been accomplished without the backstory, which makes the issue feel like so much padding.
That padding is doubly frustrating because we’re just waiting to see what happens to Tim-21. We don’t spend that much time on the ancient robot or Solomon, and we don’t get to resolve a long-standing cliffhanger. If you wanted to do backstory on Telsa, you could theoretically do it at any point, and coming where it did, it just feels like dithering. And we’re in for more of it, because the next issue is apparently about Bandit. An entire arc of backstory feels like a cheat, and especially because the last two have not been particularly interesting.
Can a story about Bandit be interesting? Let’s hope so. I’m running out of gas for this series.
Rating: 5.5/10
Zeb Larson
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 13, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
