Lumen has learned that she is the granddaughter of the legendary Captain Nemo; now she must learn the truth about what that means. Your Major Spoilers review of The Adventures of Lumen N. #2 awaits!

THE ADVENTURES OF LUMEN N. #2

Writer: James Robinson
Artists: Phil Hester and Marc Deering
Colorist: Bill Crabtree
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 15th, 2025

Previously in The Adventures Of Lumen N.: While enjoying a pleasant day playing and studying, Lumen’s life is turned upside down when men with fantastic technology attack her home, but she is saved by her long-lost grandfather, Captain Nemo.

THE UNTOLD STORY

The Adventures of Lumen N #2 starts with Lumen and her grandfather on his ship. She begins asking Nemo questions about what is going on, and while reluctant, he does tell her. In his youth, he was fanatical in his crusading for his environmental causes. This caused a split between him and his son Aeon. Nemo, utilizing a time machine, went into hibernation, while Aeon continued his work via different methods. Aeon eventually discovered a madman trying to take over the world, but was unable to stop him. Lumen travels with Nemo to Aeon’s base, which turns out to be a steam-powered walking palace. There, they discover the name of the madman and his plans, Robur the Conqueror.

GET READY FOR THE LORE DUMP

The Adventures of Lumen N. #2 is basically one large dumping ground for backstory and plot setup. Now, it may prove to be helpful to have all this story out there when future issues come out, but here it makes for a dense and dull issue. While the story that Nemo tells Lumen features a lot of action and drama, we don’t get to see most of it, as it’s told primarily through narration boxes on top of images of Lumen and Nemo just talking to each other. What this issue does well, though, is its introduction of other Jules Verne stories like The Steam House and Robur the Conqueror. These inclusions are made in a way that utilizes actual details from those novels while allowing them to exist in a new form that fits this story. Also, the very direct reference to HG Wells’ The Time Machine was a nice touch. Basically, when faced with the eternal writing conundrum of how much should be told and how much should be shown, this comic leaned towards the former in a heavy way that made it not very enjoyable to read.

A BIGGER LOOK INTO THE WORLD

While the story in The Adventures of Lumen N #2 doesn’t give a lot of opportunity for the visuals to have a lot of variation, the art still manages to be engaging and interesting. Seeing Nemo’s ship flying and diving across the ocean is really cool, and everything with Aeon’s palace is gorgeous. We also get to see more about how this version of the world, where the works of HG Wells and Jules Verne are real events, looks different.

BOTTOM LINE: WEIGHED DOWN BY EXPOSITION

The Adventures of Lumen N. #2 gives its readers a wider look at its fantastic world that incorporates the works of Jules Verne and his contemporaries into history and cultures towards the beginning of the 20th century. The problem is that it does this in one of the least effective ways it could: by just being a big issue-long lore dump. The backstory is engaging and interesting, which makes it harder that we don’t get to see these events play out. Visually, there’s still some excellent work with design, colors, and panel layout, which helps an inactive comic still come off as dynamic and nice to look at—3 out of 5 stars.

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