Comics
Review: “LOW” #2
“LOW” #2 picks up 10 years after the events of issue one. Salus has descended into the depths of squalor and depravity. Stel somehow escaped the wreckage of her family’s sub, and with her daughters still missing; she’s left with Marik who, like Salus, has been corrupted by loss.
WRITTEN BY: Rick Remender
ART BY: Greg Tocchini
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: August 27, 2014
Reviewed by Nick Brehmer
I mentioned in my review of issue #1 the homage that is being paid to the great illustrators of the late 70s and 80s such as Frank Franzetta. I like to imagine Rick Remender conjuring up Marik’s drug trip in the early pages of issue #2 just for this reason – an excuse for Greg Tocchini to go nuts and flip through Franzetta’s portfolio for inspiration. It’s a nice thought.
The beauty and Edenic nature of the underwater city is almost drained from the pages of issue #2. I say almost because, as I’m sure Remender planned it, hope and beauty remain in the character of Stel. As the issues are released, “Low” will continue to act as an aquatic mirror for the struggles brought on by our human condition. Mother and son are juxtaposed here for this very reason. Stel, although faithfully hopeful, is diminished amidst her now unfortunate home. She clings to belief despite the immense pain of losing her family. With all that pain and her witnessing of Marik’s self-destruction, doubt is an inevitability. But, in true seeker fashion, she journeys to visit a long-forgotten shaman who, while floating in white space, echoes the sentiments of Tolstoy – belief is necessary for a meaningful life. Despair closes doors.
Speaking of despair, Marik does what I’d say most of us do when confronted with struggle and dissatisfaction – we medicate, we numb, and we lose ourselves in the nothingness of self-indulgence. A certain carelessness is bred resulting in the use and enslavement of people. Ruin proceeded by recklessness.
The pacing of this series is incredible. If you care to know what I looked like while reading the final few pages, Kristen Wiig’s “so freakin’ excited” sums it up.
That’s how I feel about this series. I can’t wait to see what surprises the creators have in store for us.
Being a romantic, my hope for the future of “Low” is that it changes minds. Maybe readers who recognize themselves in Marik, bitter and terrorized by reality, will see a transformation through the mastery of Remender and Tocchini. Maybe the opposite will prove to be true. Will the creators indeed make Stels or Mariks of us all? Time will tell. For now… group hug.
An ongoing horror anthology series from BOOM! Studios, Hello Darkness is back this summer with Issue #23, and BOOM! has provided Bloody Disgusting with an exclusive sneak peek.
The temperature rises and so does the body count, as the horror anthology series returns for another round of summer slashing in Hello Darkness #23, releasing July 22, 2026.
In “Sunday Pt. II,” Ryan North and Giada Belviso send a Bride of Christ over the deep end into madness.
Then, Rich Douek and Stevan Subic lead you down a bloody path to the old west, where a brash young gunfighter seeks a showdown with “The Man Who Outdrew Death.”
Sink into the cool, briny depths of Kelly Williams’s “Old Wounds” when a grizzled light housekeeper hears the call of the sea one final time.
And finally, serve up a preview platter of erotic thriller “Gastronomique,” as a royal spy, Lady Charlotte, embarks on a cat-and-mouse hunt for the deadly cannibal Tarrare, from Marguerite Bennett and Helena Masellis.
Beat the heat with an all-new pool of fresh nightmares and dive right into horror’s deep end!
Peek inside the bloody pages of Hello Darkness #23 below!
Horror fans rejoice in cadaverous delight, because Hello Darkness is a brand new ongoing anthology series featuring what BOOM! Studios is known for–the best in modern Horror, Fantasy, and Mystery, not to mention the darkest stories yet from a murderer’s row of world class creators. Everything from primal fears to modern political horrors will be explored, in the classic style of Creepy and Eerie and the contemporary chills of Black Mirror.
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