Primordial #5
The future can be a scary place in Primordial #5, by writer Jeff Lemire, artist Andrea Sorrentino, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Steve Wands. Yet again, the creative team lays another bomb on readers.
The story picks up in 2024, in the Soviet Republic of Sweden. Yelena waits in a breadline, helps a family in need, and goes home. There, she gets a ping on her radar system. Her granddaughter takes her to the lab in Germany, where she and Pembrook were arrested. In space, Laika, Able, and Miss Baker approach Earth. Able is scared, but Laika promises to protect him. As the ship approaches, Yelena isn’t the only person waiting for it and what happens next is a tragedy.
So far, Primordial has been more of an example of visual storytelling than anything else. This issue is another example of that. To begin with, the art doesn’t have the grainy quality of previous volumes. The colors by Stewart are different as well, and the whole effect of the difference in art changes the way readers perceive the artistic choices of previous issues. Perhaps the previous issues’ Earth scenes were Yelena’s memories? Something that might play into the book’s future, perhaps the memory of one of the characters? Regardless, the difference in the visuals raises questions about the narrative of the book so far that add a new dimension to everything.
There are a couple pages where Sorrentino’s unique page layouts of interlocking panels that shed light on parts of the action that readers need to see but aren’t a part of the book’s narrative, a staple of his work with Lemire. One of the most powerful reveals the fate of Pembrook, and it looks wonderful. The end of the book is a heartbreaker of the highest order, as everything collides together and Sorrentino and Stewart capture it in all of its melancholic glory.
Lemire’s script gives the art team exactly what it needs. It says a lot about Lemire that he can step back completely in this one, and just Sorrentino and Stewart bring the whole thing to life. His trust in the art team pays off; everything another writer would have to use caption books, thought bubbles or dialogue to get across is right there on the page. While this book is an example of visual storytelling at its finest, it wouldn’t be so amazing with Lemire’s writing talent and working relationship with Sorrentino, along with Stewart’s skill as a colorist.
Primordial #5 is yet another triumph of visual storytelling. Any other writer would be doing some world-building based on the alternate history of the book, but Lemire isn’t doing that here. He’s letting the art team tell the story, as they’ve been the book’s entire run, and it works brilliantly. Primordial continues to be one of the best books on the shelves.
