Growing up is hard. Especially when your dad is keeping captured spies in the basement. Your Major Spoilers review of We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1 awaits!

WE’RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US #1

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Stefano Landini
Colorists: Roman Titov and Jason Wordie
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Editors: Steve Foxe and Eric Harburn
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 26th, 2025

Previously, in We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us: Annalise’s father is a hard-working scientist. He’s also a notorious villain known as The Vitruvian. Annalise spends her days playing hide and seek with robots, but she’d really rather spend time with her father, who never seems to have time for her.

HIDE AND SEEK

We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1 kicks off with young Annalise on the run, with a robot hot on her trail. She attempts to fight it off, but soon, she is caught by one of the robot’s compatriots. She argues that they cheated and demands to see her father. The robots try to dissuade her, but she stomps off anyway. In his lab, Annalise’s father is confronted by his child. He tries to explain that he doesn’t have time but is eventually convinced to play with his daughter. During a game of hide and seek, Annalise discovers a basement with a man tied up. He tries to get Annalise to free him, but her father arrives before she can. Elsewhere, a member of the organization V.E.I.L. is informed that one of his fellow agents is in trouble, and he needs to go get them.

A FATHER’S LOVE?

The main focus of We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1 is, appropriately, the relationship between Annalise and her dad. Everything else that happens in this issue feels like it’s only there to reinforce the dynamic between these two. Thankfully, the relationship that we see here is an interesting one that has a lot of complexity right off the bat. What makes this such a compelling read is that the comic doesn’t try to redeem The Vitruvian at all. he’s clearly a bad guy; even his justifications for his actions are soaked to the bone with egotism and arrogance. But he also clearly loves his daughter and cares for her deeply. It’s also evident that this is what’s important to Annalise; she doesn’t seem to care much about the bad things her dad does as long as he’s willing to be there for her just a little bit. It’s a sort of amoral examination of the impact of a parent’s time on their children. The dialog in this issue is great. The way they show The Vitruvian being so completely unequipped to meet his child at her level is expertly done and adds even more depth to their interactions. There is one sour note though about this issue and that’s the introduction of the V.E.I.L. agent at the end. The way he is portrayed as being kind of an a-hole even though he’s supposed to be working for the good guys is too on the nose and is just an all-around inelegant way to set up a grey area for Annalise to experience later down the road.

SHOUT OUT TO THE LETTERER

The art in We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1 is well-suited for this title. Its retro style works well with all the themes going on here, from the horror bits to the science fiction elements; even the espionage themes are well-captured in this style. There is one thing that sets the visuals in this apart from other titles with similar looks, and that’s how they handle the robots. The robots in this story have personalities, but they don’t emote. Now, normally, you’ll see artists cheat a little and sneak in slight changes to convey tone or emotion. That doesn’t happen here. Instead, it’s all done with framing and lettering. Every time one of the robots speaks, you know the tone they have and how their voice comes across even though their faces don’t change. For example, in the beginning, where we get the little fake-out that this could be a horror comic, the robots are presented as lurking on the sides of panels, searching for prey. But later on, when they’re trying to explain to Annalise that her father is busy but fail to stop her storming off, they’re shown much smaller in the frame as if resignation has taken over. Also, it might come off as a small thing, but the use of bolding individual letters and words by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and the little effects added to the word balloons convey so much.

BOTTOM LINE: NOT PERFECT, BUT HAS A TON GOING FOR IT

We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1 could have been a typical “let’s see things from the villain’s pov” type of story, which has its own set of tropes and cliches at this point. But it manages to avoid that without becoming a traditional good vs. evil story either. This issue is really all about the relationship between a daughter and father, and seeing how that plays out is where the real enjoyment comes from in this issue. There are a few moments that lack the complexity of the central idea, but for the most part, this is an engaging read. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: You can listen to our interview with Matthew Rosenberg on the Major Spoilers Podcast.

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