Doctor Pembrook is assigned to work for Nasa during the Cold War but the secrets he finds leads to a dangerous discovery. Find out more in Primordial #1 by Image Comics!
PRIMORDIAL #1 (OF 6)
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Andrea Sorrentino
Coloring: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Steve Wands
Editor: Greg Lockard
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 15th, 2021
Previously in Primordial: Doctor Pembrook is an electrical engineer who led the digital computation department at MIT. He is called in for a top-secret mission for Nasa. Since the United States is still in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, perhaps this is a sign that the space race is about to start back up!
WHY WE LEFT THE SPACE RACE
Primordial #1 starts with Doctor Donald Pembrook heading into Nasa for a top-secret program. Unfortunately, it seems that his job is to clean up after the space program was shut down. As he gets his assignment, he gets an odd vision of a monkey in a spacesuit. After looking through the paperwork, he realized that two primates, Able and Baker, may somehow still alive in space. When he informs his superiors about his findings, he loses clearance to be a part of this mission.
After returning to his car, there is another man waiting for him who tells him to drive. As they are on the road, he learns that Russians also had a dog they sent into space that survived. The Russians surmised that they were taken by someone or something! Meanwhile in space, a dog and two monkeys meet for the first time.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
I struggled to get into Primordial #1 because the protagonist didn’t excite me at all. The idea of the premise is very cool, and I really like the plot line, but I’m not really interested in seeing the story through Doctor Pembrook’s point of view. In fact, the little parts I saw with the monkey and the dog were much more engaging than our main character. There were some snippets of people being slightly racist to him, but it didn’t provide much of a reaction from the protagonist or myself. Without an exciting protagonist, it is going to be difficult to become invested in the story.
With that being said, the idea is very cool. While two nations are in the Cold War, two monkeys and a dog are getting along. That idea of these three animals being stuck in space somewhere is a great premise and I hope we get to explore more of that.
BOTTOM LINE: DULL PROTAGONIST
Primordial #1 is not a bad story but it lacks engagement. I want to pick up future issues to find out more about the animals but if we are not provided more of a hook for the main character, I will be dropping this series quickly. 3 out of 5 stars from me.
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Primordial #1 (of 6)
Primordial #1 had some great ideas but lacked an engaging main character to hook us into the story.
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Writing5
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Art6
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Coloring7
Christopher Rondeau is a storyteller based in Tulsa, OK. Finding himself with little work, he ended up creating a job as a Game Master full time on the internet. Chris spends most of his days reading everything he can, writing bad fiction, and watching old Digimon cartoons with his daughter. Sometimes you can find him Dungeon Mastering a podcast or streaming on twitch. Recently, he has completed his Master's degree with a focus on collaborative storytelling. Find out more at https://rondeaucreator.com