We’re Taking Them Down With Us #5 // Review
The robot man’s captor gives him his eye back. And as she does so, he’s close enough to see her quite well. She’s gorgeous. He tells her as much,. tells her that her eauty is almost enough to make him forget all of the torture and whatnot. She asks him if it’s wroknig. He tells her ihe’s a robot. He doesn’t feel pain, but he cries out as they do what they’re doing because he wants them to feel like they’re doing a good job. So in a sense it IS working. THings are quite complicated in We’re Taking Them Down With Us #5. Writer Matthew Rosenberg’s distinct wit illuminates an enjoyable sci-fi action comedy that is brought to page and pane lby artist Stefano Landini and colorist Jason Wordie.
It’s not that the robot man doesn’t know what it’s like to feel pain. He wa, after all, born a human. Then he nearly died and got put into the body of one of his androids and things have been preety weird ever since. He’s been captured and questioned and tortured and questioned some more. It’s been a pretty uncomfortable situation for him, but he IS getting better. There’s even a chance that he might be able to escape his current predicament.
The conversation between Nina and her captive robot is worththe cover price alone. There are quite a lot of deeper philosophical matters going on that are wrapped-up in some very sharp dialogue by Rosenberg. There’s a grand sense of formality about their conversation. She knows who the robot. thinks he is. The robto knows that she knows this. And there’s a whole lot of subtlety and subtext filtering through the conversation that reveals a bt more about both characters. The issue continues on with that sort of dynamic in one of the better entries into the series thus far.
Landini has a brilliant sense of dramatic framing. Rosenberg gives thwe artist a lot of cleverly intersting bits of drama to put to the page. There isn’t a whole lot of violent action this issue. There isn’t a whole lot of imediate peril. It’s all just...weird conversations between people who are all essentially the villins of apulpy sci-fi action. And so there’s a real sense of total control and affectless intellect that animates every panel of the page. What’s fun about that is the fact that the subtle lack of emotive expression allows the artist to frame things in a way that express mood without the need to show a whole lot of expression in the characters. THe chess match between mother and duaughter is laid-out on the page with a crushingly brilliant sense of composition.Very clever stuff.
The series rolls through its penultimate issue with a casual grace that feels truly inspired. It’s remarkable how much emotion can rest in the very casual movements of people who try to show as little emotion as possible. It’s great fun...but there’s no reason why it SHOULD be apart from theweirdness of some of the situations that Rosenberg is bringing to the page. It all works so well, though.
