Review by Karl Verhoven

Ascender deals with a galaxy where almost all technology has been supplanted by magic, and robots by vampires. This has been maintained by a powerful tyrant called Mother, but The Dead Sea showed there’s someone even more terrifying looking to ensure the permanence of magic.

However, if there was any doubt about the title representing hope, Digital Magic provides it by another transformation and the full introduction of the final two characters readers of Descender will want to see. While there have been hints of Jack Kirby, there’s now no longer any doubt of this being Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s thematic homage to Star Wars, although with less fear about asking the bigger questions. “After everything you’ve seen is it so hard to believe there’s a design to the universe?”, Telsa is asked at one point. “A design? All I see is chaos and death” is her pessimistic response.

The big sweep of Star Wars isn’t apparent because Nguyen’s excellent art is so far removed from what’s usually associated with SF or fantasy. The scratchy figures on spartan backgrounds with limited watercolours tell the story so well, and it’s when the action is anything other than human combat scenes that Nguyen’s weakest. A style so good for people can fail to convey the intensity, but that comment only applies to the slight weakspot of a great artist.

Ascender has progressed from everything being seen from Mila’s viewpoint, only natural for a series covering an entire galaxy, but she remains prominent. As Digital Magic ends the major cast members are spread across four different planets, and one so far continual threat has been eradicated. The finale awaits in Star Seed.

Alternatively, while used copies of four paperbacks come cheap, if you can afford it the ideal version is the entire story in a single collection, which is available either as the hardcover Deluxe Edition, or the paperback Compendium.